Luke James headlined the Highline Ballroom in New York for the second time Wednesday night and treated the amped-up crowd to a fantastic performance of his passionate song, “I Want You.”
James has come a long way from the start of his career. The New Orleans-born singer first became serious about music when he heard a “Showtime at the Apollo” contestant singing Donny Hathaway’s “A Song for You.” While he was in high school and shortly after graduating, he joined a couple of music groups, and even sang background for Tyrese Gibson, but he eventually moved on and became a solo act.
“After high school, I moved from New Orleans to Los Angeles and started songwriting,” the soul singer told Teen Vogue in an interview last year. “But I didn’t really get serious until then. I was set on being an artist, but when I first got to L.A., I started singing background, and through that I met different producers and started writing songs.”
After writing for popular artists like Chris Brown (“Crawl”), Keri Hilson (“Do It”) and Britney Spears (“Kill the Lights”), he released his debut EP, #Luke, which featured his first single, “I Want You.” He received critical acclaim for the song and it even earned him a Best New Artist nomination at the 2012 Soul Train Awards and a Grammy nomination in 2014 for Best R&B Performance.
James released his self-titled album in 2014, and later that year, he was nominated at the Grammys for Best R&B Song for his single “Options,” which featured Rick Ross.
Right now, James is working on new music and continues to perfect his sound, which he calls “progressive soul music.” Listening to James’ ever-improving music and watching his performances makes it obvious that more award nominations and wins can’t be too far ahead for him.
Check out some sexy shots of the performer at Highline Ballroom below.
