Ne-Yo constantly stays one of the busiest artists in this game. While continuing to support his late 2012 album “R.E.D.,” he is currently promoting the new single called “It’s All Good” with Cher Lloyd for Fruttare Fruit bars, along with his feature on the David Guetta/Akon single “Play Hard,” signing new acts as an A&R at Motown, remixing current hit songs like Ciara’s “Body Party,” and still working as a songwriter for superstar acts like Beyonce, Jay-Z and Celine Dion.
The platinum hitmaker recently spoke with Billboard for an update on all things Ne-Yo, and in promotion of the Fruttare song. Interesting he revealed some info about the highly-anticipated new Beyoncé album, in addition to his own next album.
“I’m still putting stuff together for Beyonce’s album,” he said. “They’re still trying to figure out what they want that to be, which I’m not mad at. Beyonce’s the kind of artist where you’re not gonna see it till it’s right. And her fans — they love her so they’ll be patient.”
Ne-Yo is also still actively working on Celine Dion’s still-unscheduled upcoming album, for which they’ve already recorded a cover of Adele and Daniel Merriweather’s “Water And A Flame” and contributed other tracks for more than a year now. “I’m still writing for her,” he says. “I just recently got a call to do some more songs, so I know she’s doing some more work.”
He has also began early planning for own next album, which is still in the conceptual phase but will likely be “predominantly R&B,” he said. His latest top 10 on the Hot 100 was the Sia-penned “Let Me Love You,” a four-on-the-floor dance ballad that overshadowed the performance of “R.E.D.“‘s R&B-leaning singles like “Lazy Love” and “Jealous,” both of which failed to crack top 40.
“I’m really excited about what’s happening in R&B right now,” he says. “I want to see what my place is in the whole thing. That’s not to say I’m abandoning the EDM genre. I’ve gotten so much unimaginable love from that fanbase and that genre. It’s really rare that an entire genre of music allows an artist from a different genre to come and live there. By no means am I abandoning that, but I definitely know I need to take care of my core — the thing that got me here in the first place. I don’t feel like I’ve given it the attention it deserves.”
