Idol Chatter & Voice Views

His audition: Kenny Iko, 35, of Washington, D.C., performed “Versace on the Floor” by Bruno Mars, Kenny showed off a wonderful tone from the first note. And he got an early chair turn from his dream coach, Snoop Dogg. Kenny’s impressive range prompted a turn from Niall Horan as well. Niall said he loves Kenny’s falsetto. Snoop said he doesn’t have anyone like Kenny on his team. He loves Kenny sound, his look, his style and his spirit. Kenny joined Team Snoop.

Here’s more about Kenny:

* He’s an R&B artist from Washington, D.C. He says his music “blends smooth falsetto, heartfelt lyrics,” to create “the kind of R&B that makes you feel something real.”

* A decade ago, he was part of an R&B singing / dancing trio called 4EY The Future.

* That group made a splash with a 2015 release called “Scoot Ova.” The music video for the song has more than 400,000 views on YouTube. But the group released just one follow-up single, “No Time to Waste” in 2016.

* As a solo artist, Kenny released a single called “Everything” in 2020 that has more than 100,000 streams on Spotify. He also has a single called “For You” from the following year.

* On Friday, he released his biggest solo project to date, a five-song EP called “Late Check Out.” Check out “Biggest Flex,” the lead single from the EP below.

* In his Spotify bio, Kenny says he fell in love with music at a young age from listing to his godfather sing and through participation in church choir. He also followed in his father’s footsteps as a big fan of Michael Jackson.

* Kenny told Flaunt.com that he had “a lot of fun,” got to tour extensively and made memories — including meeting Usher — while a member of 4EY The Future. But he also said it was a relief to transition from a boy band to a solo artist.

* “When I was in a group, we’re doing a lot of bubble gum music,” he told the site. “We couldn’t really be ourselves. It was a facade, we’re these puppets they wanted us to be. We’re all cool with it because we saw it working, but at the same time, we’re growing into grown men. We had our own experiences, own things we wanted to talk about, but we couldn’t because we’re still scooting over doing dance songs.”

* Kenny writes that his idols include Michael Jackson, Prince and Bobby Brown and he hopes to bring back that “heavily influenced performing quality.”

* Pre-Voice, Kenny already had an impressive following on TikTok — more than 675,000 followers and more than 12.1 million likes on his videos.

Kenny on social media:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
YouTube