Jade Latrice has been singing nearly her whole life – but even her best friend didn’t know it for a long time. 

The Chicago-area native used to sing to her parents and siblings around the house, but she was too shy to show off her voice in front of anyone else. 

“When we used to have family gatherings, my mom would try to get me to sing but I was so quiet and would shy up,” she says. “Everyone in the house knew I could sing but nobody else really knew I could. Singing in front of other people, I guess I was kind of scared about it because I’m really reserved.”

When she finally sang in front of her best friend, she was “super surprised.”

“She was like this whole time you could sing?” Latrice recalls. “That’s how quiet I was with it.”

Some of that shyness remains, but now Latrice is making her self known as an R&B and soul specialist. She announced her arrival with the debut single “I Like It” with Judah Watkins in September, and followed that up with “Make it Home” in November, a track she worked on with Grammy-nominated producer TryBishop. 

“‘Make it Home’ is basically about going back and forth, thinking about the things in the past and how they went,” she says. “It’s just my personality, and other people can probably relate to going back and forth, deciding if they want to continue with something or not. It’s relatable with relationships.”

Latrice wants listeners to know it’s okay to take time to yourself to sit and consider how to move forward. It’s also okay to talk about things we go through in life and be vulnerable. 

“Find an outlet, don’t harbor things,” she says. “That’s one of the main things I want to put in my music.”

The 17-year-old grew up in a two-parent household but had to grapple with the shift to being raised by one parent several years ago. That’s one of the struggles she had to overcome. But she found that by writing things down and turning her thoughts into songs she started to feel better. 

“I also realized that I really didn’t know how to express myself any other way,” she says. 

Growing up, her mother played lots of R&B music around the house. She credits that exposure with helping develop such a soulful voice. She’s been influenced by artists like H.E.R., Summer Walker, Lauryn Hill, Brandy and Mary J.

Originally recording covers, “Make it Home” is just her second original single, but she’s got a third song scheduled for release in January, called “Somebody to Somebody.”

“It’s a reminder that whether it’s a friendship, relationship or whatever, in the midst of that if it goes bad or you’re not getting treated right, at the end of the day you’re somebody to somebody. That’s an important message that people should know,” Latrice says. 

TryBishop is also involved in that new track, and working with a producer of that caliber has pulled even more of her talent out into the open. 

In the meantime, Latrice just released the official video for “Make it Home,” which has garnered several thousand plays in less than a week. For more, follow Jade Latrice on YouTube, Instagram (jade.latrice), TikTok (jade.latrice) and Twitter (@shaladykyles). Her website is www.jadelatrice.com.