I’ve begun working on my next CD “Now You Nomi”. The first song I’ve started with is “King 4 A Day”, I’ll let you preview it when it’s finished.

After the devastating events in New Orleans last year, my online distributor organized a fundraising effort. 100% of sales from the CD PEACEFUL WORLD were contributed to the Red Cross. A total of $205,060 was raised by the campaign. Thank you CD BABY and those who bought the CDs.

The Valentine Day Contest went well. Entrants wrote answers to the question: How do you know you’re in love? The answers were quite interesting, check back soon on the message board to read them. Grand Prize is a CD/MP3 player and autographed CDs. Runners up won autographed CD. Congratulations.

Taxi A&R forwarded “Worth It” to a music licensing company with placements on CBS, FOX, MTV,the WB. They described the song as “Memorable hook. Very nice song. Good production values, great vocals, good groove, good concept. Great textures in the harmonies.”

Taxi also forwarded “Freedom” (lyrics by XSample, music by Nomi Yah) to the same company. About this song, they said “Engaging. Cohesive. Good use of imagery. Communicates emotion to listener. I enjoyed listening to it. It has a good groove, and vibe to it, and I appreciate the message. The chorus is catchy, and I found myself bouncing in my seat. I am happy to forward this good, catchy reggae track.”

Thanks to West Coast Songwriters, I had the opportunity to play songs for Brian Rawlings (president of Disney Music Publishing) who gave me useful advice about the songs as well industry tips. I also played “Benefits” for Publisher Dale Kawashima (previous president of Michael Jackson’s ATV Music and Creative Exec at Sony Publishing) who took my CD with him. He said the song was "Melodic and appealing. Expressive singing. Good lyrics and hook." Thanks Brian, Dale and WCS.

Rahul Bhatt, (Business & Creative Development, We Are Listening) reviewed “Set Me Free” saying "Interesting production! It was a pleasure listening to ‘Set Me Free’.”

I hope your year is happy and peaceful so far and look forward to hearing from you.

Nomi

Last Friday, I went to a song screening at Fort Mason, San Francisco, hosted by West Coast Songwriters. The guest was L.A. publisher Dale Kawashima, previous President of both Michael Jackson’s ATV Music (including the Beatles catalog) and Irving Azoff’s Giant Music and Creative Exec at Sony Publishing representing the song catalogs of Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Bob Dylan, Burt Bacharach.

Dale listened to "Benefits" and gave the song his professional critique saying "...melodic and appealing... The arrangement grows nicely... The bridge works well explaining and boosting the premise of the song. The bridge is the highlight of the song... Good expressive singing, good harmonies... I’ll take this CD with me... Lyrics are good in verses, explaining the story... Good hook..."

Thanks for the great feedback, Dale! And thanks to Ian and his wife and the West Coast Songwriters for having me.

Nomi

After the devastation in New Orleans, my online distributor CD Baby organized a fund raising effort. 100% of sales from the CD "Peaceful World" were contributed directly to the Red Cross for the Katrina Relief Fund. I just got this email from CD Baby reporting on how the fund raising went:

Nomi -
Just a short note to say THANK YOU for putting your CD sales in the Red Cross charity.
In the end, it raised a total of $165,060 over the last 7 weeks, sent directly to the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund through our local Portland Oregon branch.
(You should have seen their faces when we brought in that very first check, in person, for $113,000!)
Thanks again.
Derek Sivers, CD Baby
P.S.  We donated $40,000 of our own CD Baby money too, in case you were wondering. So - altogether, that's $165,060 from the artists, $40,000 from CD Baby = $205,060 donated. I hope it helps!