Que: Up Close and Personal
by Samantha Luck
If you weren’t at The Park at Fourteenth to see Que, formerly of Day26, showcase his talents solo, then you missed a good show. The talented singer, sans his former band mates, held his own on stage belting out songs from his new mixtape Guitar Her. Only backed by the harmonies of the keys, an acoustic guitar, and two songbirds, Que gave us an intimate view of his evolution as a man and as a solo artist in the Guitar Her Unplugged show, sponsored by Ciroc.
Read more after the jump.
Dressed in a Yankee-fitted, white unbuttoned button-up over a black V-neck T-shirt, dark denim jeans, and Chucks, Que exuded cool, chill, relaxed. He simply asked the audience, “Can I sing for ya?” And that’s exactly what he did.
He started with the mixtape’s opener “Guitar Her” with the lyrics, “Got a mean walk, got a mean voice, got six ladies callin’, got a make a choice.” Hmmmm, ok, I hear you, Que. Talk about confidence. He definitely displayed plenty in front of the crowd, some of which watched him on “Making The Band,” where at times he seemed unsure of himself. I asked Que about the man he is now compared to the man he was on the show.
“The Que you saw on the show didn’t know how to handle business,” he said. “The only thing that’s changed is that I’m growing into the man God wants me to be.”
The show continued as he sang the very sexual “Hair Ruff.” I heard a lady audience member ask, “Wait, what did he say?,” as if she couldn’t believe her ears. Well, the chorus goes: “I see you looking back at me, but you ain’t going nowhere ’cause I got you by the hair.” Grown-up Que, indeed!
Que continued and softened it up a bit with a track he said is his favorite, “Free Falling,” a duet with Dawn of Diddy-Dirty Money. She was not in the building, but R&B singer Desiree Jordan, who opened for Que, sang the powerful love song with him instead.
The range of Que’s music went from fast and “poppy” to soft and sensual. He explained to me that this new sound of his is “acoustic R&B, pop, soulful. I would say it’s R&B, pop, all those things, because I don’t want it to be just inside the box.”
After introducing the audience to a few more tracks off his new project, including his hit single “Medicine,” he closed with a humble “I hope you guys enjoyed it.”
The crowd screamed like they really did enjoy the show and this new Que. He enjoyed it as well. “It was amazing and it felt really good to get everything out,” Que said once his performance was over.
Even after the TV show, the controversy, his personal struggles becoming public, and the disbandment, I asked Que what keeps him going, to which he replied, “God. My family. Just having faith in myself. When you believe in yourself, nobody can take that away from you. Nobody can take your faith away from you.”
