When people think of heritage dance artists, people like Donna Summer, Madonna, and Prince come to mind. It is time to update that with fresh voices of the 2000s and include Miss Aubrey Ayala – known to most as Aubrey. With a string of club and radio hits including "Stand Still," "Willing & Able," "I'm Waiting," "If You Don't Know Me By Now," and "No One in This World," Aubrey has certainly earned a place as one of the best US dance artists. With her take of Madonna's classic "Angel" gathering buzz, Aubrey is back with a vengeance to keep us dancing!
DJ Ron Slomowicz: Welcome back, you've been gone for a while.
Aubrey: Yes, gone but hopefully not forgotten.
RS: It looks like your first comeback single is going to be this
cover of Angel. What was the inspiration to cover the Madonna classic?
Aubrey: Well it was actually something that I worked on a long time
ago, actually back in 2003. A friend had come to me with the idea and
at the time, the market wasn't really so strong with covers. So we
thought it was a good idea but it turns out that the labels weren't
that interested in it at the time. As the cover market grew stronger
it seemed like more and more of a better idea to re-pitch to the
labels, and Madonna is the best there is so why not go for the best?
RS: What made you choose that Madonna song?
Aubrey: It was actually chosen for me. The track was already
created and they contacted me and wanted me to sing it. So it was
sort of just me saying yes, that I thought it was a good track and
that my voice would fit well doing the cover and I was happy with it.
RS: You've got some new mixes done, were you involved in
choosing the remixers?
Aubrey: Some of them, I was, and others were on board from the
original producers. My personal one that I created was Jsmooth's mix.
He's a local Philly guy that I like to bring in to the mix when I do
projects.
