TEAM RNS PRESENTS

ARTIST: Kimberley Locke

TITLE: One Love

LABEL: Curb Records

RIPPER: Team RNS

214kbps avg - Pop
0hr 45min total- 73.1mb

RELEASE DATE: 2004-05-04
RIP DATE: 2004-05-02

01 8th World Wonder               3:58
02 Have You Ever Been In Love     4:15

05 Without You (Duet With Clay    4:29

09 Youve Changed                  3:20
10 Now I Can Fly                  3:41
11 I Cant Make You Love Me        3:20
12 Somewhere Over The Rainbow     3:45

Kimberley Locke was born on January 3,
1978 to Christine and Donald Locke in
Hartsville, Tennessee, a small town just
outside of Nashville. When Kimberley was
seven, her parents split up and she
moved with her mother to Gallatin,
Tennessee where she finished her
primary years of schooling. Kimberley’s
love for music was innate, and her first
memories of singing began when her
mother bought her, her first radio with
a dual cassette recorder. "My mother
bought me these books that were
sing-a-longs - the Getalong Gang,
Rainbow Bright, The Care Bears...I used
to listen to them over and over and
memorize the songs. I always loved to

"In fact, I remember one time that my
dad was driving me to my babysitter’s
house, and I didn’t let him turn on the
radio in the car, because I wanted to sing
the whole way," recalls Kimberley. " I
had seen ‘The Wizard Of Oz’ the night
before, and I was singing all of the
songs from the movie...it’s pretty
ironic that I ended up singing
‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ on Idol."

Growing up on Janet Jackson, Whitney
Houston and Diana Ross, Kimberley relied
on her grandmother’s extensive vinyl
collection to listen to her favorite
singers. Music was a family affair, and
Kimberly often sang vocals in her
"first band" - with her cousins as
back-up musicians. But it wasn’t until
the seventh grade, that Kimberley formed
an all-girl group with friends who
called themselves Shadz Of U - a group
that she still performs with to this
day. "We used to sing a lot of a-cappella
materials - it was all about the
harmonies," says Kimberley. "We didn’t
have a leader of the group, and we did
a lot of Gospel. We performed at many
churches in the area, and on some
Sundays," she added, "we would perform at
five different churches in one day."

When Kimberley joined the choir in high
school, she was advanced enough to make it
into the premier high school group as a
young sophomore called "The
Performers", which featured a top 20
select group of male and female
singers. "Once I got into The
Performers, and developed my craft, I
became a lot better singer. It was
really my life outside of school."

Natural progression would lead one to
believe that Kimberley would continue to
pursue music at college when she began
attending Belmont University in
Nashville. "When I went to college, I
didn’t sing at all. They had a school of
music, but it was very competitive, and I
didn’t want to compete in college."
Kimberley continues, "but it was really
difficult for me, because I was majoring
in business education, and I wasn’t
singing - I felt like I had a void that
needed to be filled."

It wasn’t until a good friend of
Kimberley’s turned her on to a local
band, which led to her singing with
various bands in Nashville. Soon
Kimberley was performing with Black
Widow, a group that sang Top 40, and The
Imperials, a group of retired professors -
in which the drummer had once played
with James Brown. "I learned the most
from working with The Imperials. They
pushed me that extra mile to where most
of my jazziness comes from." Kimberley
continued playing with local bands in
Nashville for six years while going to
school, but she began to feel like
"this was work." She decided that she
did not want to be 40 and still singing in

She stopped performing at age 22.

"I stopped cold turkey, finished school,
and then enrolled in law school," says
Kimberley. "I had my books and was
slated to begin attending the Nashville
School of Law last October, when I was
urged by my sister-in-law and several
friends to audition for American Idol."

"I remember thinking yeah, yeah...I
can do this" -- but Kimberley was
reluctant. At the advice of a friend
telling her ‘you’ll never know if you
don’t try,’" Kimberley decided to take
the plunge. American Idol was holding
auditions in Nashville, and soon
Kimberley found herself waiting for at
least five hours a day over the course
of four-five days in the waiting line.
"I put in a total of 18 hours
auditioning for the show. With more
than 1,500 people in line, I was 1,580,"
laughs Kimberley. "I was really wondering
what I was doing there. I had a job, and
here I am standing outside waiting to
be heard. In my mind there was no
rational answer to this, but I thought,
‘if I’m going to do it, I’m going to do

Kimberley did it alright. She kept
making it through round after round of
auditions, and finally was to come to Los
Angeles to audition in Glendale’s Alex
Theatre for the final round. Kimberley
now had to make a serious decision -
begin law school or pass on pursuing
American Idol any further. The American
Idol auditions were the week after she
was to begin law school, and Kimberley
decided to withdraw from law and take
the risk. "It was a tough decision
because in my mind, I had this road that
I could see down. It was clear, there
was no fog. And now I was going down
this road that was very foggy, and I
couldn’t see my hand in front of my face."

Regardless, Kimberley felt that she had
to take the chance.

The first day Kimberley showed up at the
Alex Theatre, the contestants were told
to look around, because the person
sitting next to them may not be there
tomorrow. Every day 100 people went
home, and then 20, and then groups of
eight were split up into the Top 32. It
was in her group, that she met her
fiercest competitors, yet closest
friends, Clay and Ruben.

"At this point in the process, it was
very nerve-wracking, because every night
they gave us something different," says
Kimberley. "One night," she continues,
"we didn’t stop rehearsing until 11:00
p.m. ,and then they gave us cold lyrics
that we had to back to our hotel rooms,
make up a song for them, and come back
and sing it the next morning. We had to
be creative...I did a lot of prayer."

The final day came when Kimberley made
it to the top three finalists with Clay
and Ruben, but lost out by a slim margin
of America’s votes to continue to the
finish. Regardless, Kimberley was so
proud of her two friends that she had
become so close with over the course
of the American Idol experience. "It
was a close race...the night I got voted
off, there was a 2 percent vote between
the runner up and myself. I didn’t lose
by a long shot, so it was a great
experience to have. I love Clay and
Ruben, and I was happy for them."

After American Idol ended, it didn’t
really end. Kimberley embarked on the
American Idol tour cross country, and
soon, the American Idol experience led
her to her recording contract with Curb

"It was kind of scary because I knew my
life was going to change after American
Idol, but I didn’t know how," says
Kimberley. "Now I’m thrilled to see
where it leads with the new album,"

As work on Kimberley’s debut album is in
process, she will be focusing on hit
material, as she puts it. "I just want
hits. The first song I recorded totally
jumped out at me...that’s what I’m
focusing on for the new album, whether
it be pop, R&B or ballads."

When asked about her musical
inspirations, Kimberley comments: "I’ve
been inspired by a lot of people - my
answer to that is that every artist has
something to bring to the
table...because they’re all different.
There are so many superstars and popstars
because they all have something. If I
take just one and model myself after
one particular artist, then I’m
limiting myself. Take Aretha Franklin
and Patti LaBelle, both R&B singers, but
if I was to choose one, I’d miss out on
everything that the other has to offer,
because their styles are totally

"So I’d say...that my inspirations are
Whitney Houston, Sade, Aretha Franklin,
Patti LaBelle and Janet Jackson,
because they are all different, but the
one thing that they have in common is
that they all have longevity to their
careers. Kimberley adds with a huge
smile, "this is what I would like for

"I would love to have mass appeal - to
everybody, and longevity is #1 on my
priority list," she adds. The bottom
line would have to be that I want to
keep singing, put out hits, and be
around for years. I want to be around for