Diva Divo - Dance Magazine

Rachael Panay Back to Love

“I don’t know if I should say this to a publication…” begins Rachel Panay. Those are always dangerous words in an interview, but the threat that follows is even more severe: “I will build my empire on the crushed skulls of my enemies’ heads!”

Fear not, dear reader; there’s no danger of decapitation anytime soon. Rachel’s not angry – in fact, she starts to giggle. She’s not copping attitude – in fact, this fellow Leo is merely bonding over the faux bravado that we share by birthright of our common zodiac sign. To be totally honest, the threat isn’t even her own. And despite her impressive educational credits, it’s not a quip from Homer, Frost or Joyce, either.

“It’s from the [HBO] mini-series Rome,” she laughs coyly. “I guess I identify with those women in Rome!”

Just a few short weeks after the release of her debut album, Back to Love, Rachel Panay is busy identifying with a lot of different women: she considers classic jazz singer Sarah Vaughan one of her earliest musical influences and counts Kristine W, Amber and Ultra Nate as the dance genre’s greatest talents. She credits her own mother for being the strongest supporter of her stardom dreams, while Panay’s look – a classy blend of cabaret chic and club-girl vogue – suggests Marlene Dietrich by way of Winter Music Conference. These are just the real women with whom Rachel shares one commonality or another; there’s also the gaggle of female characters she channels throughout Back to Love, a 16-track barrage of hit-worthy club anthems. By writing (and of course, singing) from different perspectives, Rachel is able to explore all aspects of her own personality: “There’s the hopeful ingénue,” she describes, referring to the emotional voice behind “I Still Believe,” one of her Billboard Dance Club Play hits. “There’s the jaded person who’s fed up with love,” she continues, aptly describing the narrator of “It’s Not Enough.” “And then there’s the slut!” she concludes of the minx in “Walk of Shame,” the song that’s inclusion on 2003’s Party Groove Fireball originally launched Rachel into the dance stratosphere. Still, there’s no disorder to Rachel’s multiple personalities: “I think we all have to be honest with ourselves,” she explains. “There are facets of every one of those characters in every one of us. It’s just a matter of the degree to which one is dominating. I really feel at the core I am hopeful and pure and excited about my future… even while I’m fiesty and mischievous and having a lot of fun along the way!”

Fun, yes… but a lot of work, too. Back to Love and its latest single, “It’s Got to Be Love,” are the culmination of years of songwriting, music study, and old-fashioned pavement-pounding. Still, ever the self-assured Leo, Rachel was always confident that her voice and talent would find an audience: “I always felt destined to do what I’m doing.”

That may be true, but it doesn’t mean this hardworking diva left anything to chance. Raised in a musical household (her mother was a classical pianist and piano instructor), Rachel learned early on that it took sacrifice to make dreams of stardom come true. “It takes a really strange, insane person to go on the road as a musician,” she says. “But as soon as my mom saw that I was interested, she jumped right in and helped me do piano, ballet… and basically, the rent was secondary. It was, ‘Rachel’s ballet classes have to be paid for… I don’t care if the rent is paid.’ My mom had that mentality.”

Rachael Panay Back to Love

Dedication is one thing, but knowledge is another. To ensure she had both, Rachel enrolled in the Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts. Upon graduation, the Washington DC native decided to further her education at Boston’s prestigious Berklee College of Music. “I studied with Charlie Sorrento and Donny Nolan,” she says. “Two favorite teachers that I owe a lot to!” However, book learning wasn’t all it took to secure success: “Having gone to a performing arts high school, and Berklee… you’re vocally trained, you’ve got your dance classes, you’ve got your songwriting skills,” she says, rattling off the litany of courses. “But nothing can prepare you for the real world, the industry, and what it takes to make your voice heard. When I finished school I bounced between different bands, different producers and projects, trying to figure it out.”

Lucky for her fans, Rachel had the confidence and persistence to make things happen. She says, “They refer to it as shameless self-promotion, but it really is the key! Anything I have in my world today is because of the first day I walked out of the office with my heart pounding, my CD in my hands, ready to hand it to somebody.” And fortunately for Rachel, that CD found its way to the right hands: Manny Ferreira, a Boston-based DJ and record store owner. “I literally went in there and handed him my CD,” Rachel recalls. “And that landed me my first gig for dance music at [Boston club] VENU.”

The rest, as they say, is history. With three Top-10 Billboard hits already under her belt, Rachel Panay is making good on early promise, hard study, and a love of dance music. “As the song goes, I Love the Nightlife!” she exclaims. “I love the people, I love the scene. You have to really live and breathe it to penetrate the surface.”