NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — There's no question. Students in metro schools are capable of some pretty amazing things. Some of them have just gotten a pretty grand opportunity to show all they can do.
Three teenage girls posed in a row, ready to rehearse their song. They call themselves Finesse. The song, they wrote. The dance moves, all theirs.
"Our dads are both producers," said group member Millie Miree, sitting with friend and fellow group member Leslie Hammonds. "Our moms both sing. It runs in the family for real."
Group member Aria Hanna and featured vocalist Darren Ekezie complete the dynamic.
"It's like we're each other's missing piece!" Miree laughed.
The dream is to create music with a little style of those great 90s r&b girl groups.
"So, like, SWV?" I asked them.
"YES!" Miree and Hammonds said in unison.
They've got taste.
Finesse is part of something helping them toward the goal.
They're among the groups in the Metro Nashville Public Schools Songwriting Summit. In it, students get to work with Grammy Award-winning musicians in writing and recording original songs. The songs go onto the school district's second student album, Marching Into Greatness: Voices of Tomorrow. It's streaming on all platforms.
"Growing up around music, it's been such a huge part of who I am as a person, as a woman, just growing in general," Hammonds said.
The MNPS Songwriting Summit happens through the CMA Foundation with help from the Tennessee Titans One Community Foundation. It matters to Miree and Hammonds that so many people worked to make this happen.
"Having adults around you that believe in you really contributes to the joy you find in it," Hammonds nodded.
On Tuesday night came a showcase at Rocketown. Finesse stepped onto the stage, ready to deliver a song like one of the r&b girl groups from the 90s.
Finesse. Some just have it.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
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