In 2002, it was hard not to notice Tweet, then a new R&B singer who performed with southern soul. She wasn’t reinventing the genre, but her genuine approach to making music with substance, in a time when the airwaves were dominated by manufactured music, was respectable.

She had a massive hit with “Oops (Oh My),” leading people to discover her debut album, “Southern Hummingbird,” which had few similar songs. She also had another single, “Call Me,” which was featured in a phone commercial.

But people were also captivated by her compelling story. She was a member of a girl group going nowhere. About to kill herself, she was saved by her guardian angel Missy Elliott who invited Tweet to do backup vocals on her album. Her career?but more importantly, her life?was saved.

It seemed her life story was commodified so much that consumers were being sold that tale almost as much as they were being sold her album. The line between what was a marketing strategy and what she was really going through was questionable because if one did not hear the words coming from her mouth, the story could have been mistaken for just another marketing ploy.

But with sincerity in her voice, Tweet says there was nothing overblown about it. That was her story, and it was important for her to share.

“I think people were more fascinated with the fact that I wasn?t afraid to talk about it,” she says, on the line from New York. And after hearing her story, many got hooked on her music. “I guess that?s what kept their attention, that I wasn?t afraid.”

Tweet, Born Charlene Keys, was in a “dark” place when she wrote her first album, and she can see that state of mind when listening to it now. “I was suicidal so that?s a reflection of my life back then, just feeling worthless.”

With the success comes a whole new attitude. Tweet, now 34 years old, sees a different person when she looks back at that time in her life?before the music career lifted off.

“I want to slap myself because it wasn?t really that bad,” she admits. “Whatever I was going through to get to that state was not enough to take my life.”

Watch the video for “Turn Da Lights Off,” her first single off “It’s Me Again,” in stores now:
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Plus, check out her e-card and official site at tweetmusic.com

Her second album, “It’s Me Again,” released last week, sees a different side to Tweet. There’s lighter music; happier music; uplifting music without feeling sympathy.

Recording the album, Tweet felt symptoms of the sophomore jinx early on.

“I felt like I had to duplicate ‘Southern Hummingbird.’ But I thought, I’m not in that place anymore in my life. I just wanted to write about what’s going on in my life now.”

What helped her get over the fears of a jinx was thinking about the real success of her first album?not the certifications, the money, and the fame?but the people she says she’s helped.

“The success to me comes when my fans come and say, ‘thank you because you’re music helped me through a lot’.”

And Tweet has proof that her music can touch people, and it came in the form of a letter.

“I was in DC or Baltimore signing autographs and a 14 or 15 year old came and gave me a letter. She said, ‘read it.’ I said I’d read it later. She said, ‘I need you to read it now.’ I read it and it said how she was going through a lot and she put a gun to her head and was going to pull the trigger, but because she heard my music, she didn?t do it.”

Despite the different tone to the music on the new album, Tweet kept the same formula. She used the same producers, wrote lyrics in the same way, and of course, stayed “brutally honest about my life.”

She reminds, “I don?t mind telling my story without sugar coating it or anything like that.”

Tweet answered 3 emails from andPOP visitors

1. How important is commercial success to you vs. the love of making good music, and do those two contradict?

They don?t contradict because my whole thing is if I could just touch one person with my music, that?s my success. I want to put out timeless music that you can put in 10 years from now and still enjoy it.

2. Do you have any regrets in life?

Never. You should never live on regrets. Everything I went through I feel was a learning experience and I’m the strong person I am today because of what I’ve been through.

3. When did you learn how to play the guitar and will you be playing it on tour?

Definitely. I picked up the guitar in 1996 because I got tired of waiting for people’s tracks. I will definitely be playing it on tour. (Tweet says she plans on touring from as soon as April until “whenever.”)






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