Maybe in Another Life by Chenayder

Review written by Radisysta

Chenayder (sha-hya-der) is a 17 year old artist from Orlando, Florida. It started in elementary school with writing poetry. Then in middle school she started experimenting with beats; Listening to a variety of them on her way to school. She was in 7th grade when COVID hit. During this time, her mom had gifted her the equipment to start recording and posting them online. She broke onto the scene at 16, with her first song “Bethany” that she posted on TikTok. She received positive comments and feedback to continue with music.

Her music is a mix of alternative R&B, soul, and bedroom pop. She has stated some of her inspirations are Billie Eilish, Melanie Martinez, and 50s music. You can see some of these inspirations influence her work. An example is The Four Freshman, an American male vocal quartet group. They create jazzy, “barbershop” music with a larger vocal range to create big vocal group sounds while harmonizing with each other. Chenayder harmonizes with background vocals, playing around with layering and distortion. She creates unique, soft, and blissful music.

Her latest album, Maybe in Another Life, was released on July 12, 2024. With seven songs, she sings about relationships and heartbreak. The first track and her most popular song is “Colors,” featuring MAVI. The contrast between the voices is incredible; Chenayder’s softer singing voice and MAVI’s rapping work well together. The company of the bass from the guitar and drums give it the R&B old-school feel. As the title suggests, both artists cleverly mention color references in the lyrics of the song. My favorite part of the song is the rap portion done by MAVI. It can be difficult to mix singing and rap together and make it seem like it belongs, but in this case they do!

I saw throughout this album the teenage girl experience. What I mean by that is what a “typical” teenage girl would experience, and yes, Chenayder is a teenager herself, putting what she feels into her music. Especially in today’s society, we put onto girls these old fashioned and out of date expectations; to not dream as big as boys do, and to dress and present ourselves a certain way to be perceived as a girl or woman. This album is literally called Maybe in Another Life and to me, as cheesy as it might sound, it means to just go for it. Confess your feelings to that person, experiment with your hair, and follow that passion you have. We only live once, don’t regret it or tell yourself “maybe in another lifetime” (see what I did there).

Overall this album is great! This experience of being a teenager is nostalgic for me. Growing up can be scary. There is this wholesomeness of not worrying about bills or adult things, but instead about homework I have or crushes on boys in school. The album is colorful, childish (but in a good way), and almost fairy tale-like. Even the album cover is Chenayder sitting in a room full of papers, as chairs and loose pieces of paper fly around her.

Chenayder did an interview on YouTube channel beans + bars, in which she states, “cuz like with each song it’s like what I could have done in like maybe another life or like what I could do differently you know? Or what I’m not doing now.” This feeling of not doing enough or wishing you can rewind your life to change it is a universal feeling. I feel as women especially we’re in our heads more, we tend to overthink things.