Fresh from a sold-out, sing-along crowd at Brooklyn’s Kings Theater, opening for Jazmine Sullivan on her multi-city Heaux Tales tour, Tiana Major9 is drawing major buzz. Her single “Try Peace” is gaining constant traction, putting even more eyes on the 26-year-old R&b phenom that’s been bubbling just under the surface for the better part of the last two years.
“[I knew] As soon as I wrote it,” she said of the single’s appeal. “As soon as I wrote it in the studio, we were like, yeah, this is the one. And it came very last minute,” she said, noting that the song was released only three weeks after she wrote and recorded it.
The track, a song about shedding the need for self-sabotage in love and trusting your partner with your heart, is exemplary of Tiana’s musical inspirations. With a sound she describes as a fusion of R&B, jazz, hip hop, and some gospel inspirations, it’s a testament to her upbringing – surrounded by song.
“I started singing very young. I was like five years old, and I would just be singing in the church, singing at home a lot,” she explained. “My mom would go to a vocal workshop and she would come home and just practice. And I would practice with her. She’d teach me how to breathe and how to really train my voice.”
That near-lifelong training has paid off in preparing her for three prior EP’s, 2019’s Rehearsals @ NINE, 2020’s At Sixes and Sevens, last year’s Major Mantras, and her most recent, Fool Me Once.
“Fool Me Once is a few songs taken from my life story that I’ve really enjoyed” she said of the EP. Tiana says she loves having the opportunity to pour her heart out in songs like “Try Peace,” loved collaborating with Smino on “2 Seater,” and playing with some of her American influences on “On God,” in particular.
“‘On God,’ taps into my most recent inspirations, being in the US a bit more and being around loads of different people, specifically people from the South and just picking up the slang,” she said of the track. “I like when people say ‘On God’’ here, so I decided to write a song about it.”
With 7 dates left on the Heaux Tales tour, Tiana is using her time to listen, learn, and build her experience and fan base city by city.
“It’s been dope. I’ve had a lot of fun,” she says of the tour. “I’m learning a lot. I watch [Jazmine Sullivan’s] show every night. I’m trying a lot of different food as we go to all of the different cities. Picking up some of the lingo, and just being observant of the different areas and places that I’m going to.”
“Being able to see my fans and engage and play some new music has been
good,” she continued. “I hope to see some more of my fans there.”