We first heard of Kris Lawrence being called “prince of local R&B” last month when he performed at the Manila wedding reception of Chiz Escudero and Heart Evangelista. And that left some scribes asking what happened to JayR who used to have that moniker.
Apparently, Kris now holds that moniker because JayR is now being called the king of R&B after he moved to ABS-CBN. This appears like an upgrade in stature because Kyla, who they call in Kapuso Network as “princess of R&B” is now the “Queen of R&B” after she cut her ties with the latter and joined the roster of singers that perform in the Sunday musical, ASAP.
The new title is also repeatedly used in the publicity material for Kyla’s repackaged album that features a duet with JayR. The decent-sounding love song, however, is not doing well in terms of its performance on the music charts. It seems that music consumers don’t buy not just the music, but the whole idea of this R&B royalty tags.
At the end of the day, those monikers wouldn’t really matter. They may use them as part of their branding, but the real challenge is actually the artist’s ability to sell records. Give us multiplatinum records and a couple of memorable hits, and you can have or claim all the King and Queen monikers available.
VERY WANG 