International Cross-Over Artist Renay Announces Bohemian Single, “Wanna Share”

Artist and producer Renee Asteria Penaloza has announced her newest single “Wanna Share,” out today under her most recent musical persona, Renay.

The name, which means “to be reborn” in French, hints at the stylistic transition the singer-songwriter has undergone following her recruitment by the Crē•8 Music Academy in West Hollywood. After attending the music production bootcamp, Renay was conceived as a way to diversify her sound and expand her reach to a more mainstream audience. This follows in the wake of a number of previous artistic personalities, including Ratrap, a trilingual rapper-singer duo, Razteria, who blends South American sounds with a flavor of Reggaeton, as well as Renée Asteria.

Now known as Renay, the San Francisco Bay pop artist is excited to share her fourth single. She explains, “‘Wanna Share’ is a non-traditional love song. It’s about being at peace with yourself, focusing on becoming your best, not compromising, and at the same time, being ready to share your love and your life.”

Donning stout basslines, rich synths, and signature ethereal vocals, the single effectively delivers a punchy electronic dance tune indicative of Renay’s poppy renaissance of sound. From tumultuous crests of volume and echoing downbeats, the song gleams with trappy brass and cozy electronic hooks fit for the San Francisco pop scene’s latest member.

Despite this most recent turn towards American pop, Renay remains firmly tethered to her multicultural roots, a quality prevalent throughout her wide range of genre-bending music. Born in the U.S. of Bolivian-Dutch heritage and raised in France, Renay implements a number of stylistic crossovers, fusing Latin, reggae, and alternative rock rhythms in her work. Performing in English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese, her music has been described as “musically adventurous.” She elaborates, “Musically, I cross genres, and write songs in English and Spanish, and hope to develop music that represents the beauty of cultural diversity."

This commitment to celebrating multiculturism dominates Renay’s work, a manifestation of her sensitivities to stark social inequalities around the globe. While frequently tying in activism into her work, Renay collaborates with artists worldwide, across the UK, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia. Notably, her song “DCN”— released as Razteria— features youth from Enseñarte, a non-profit organization based in Bolivia, as well as Honduran UK artist Rich D Lion. Her song “Once Again,” featuring Californian rapper Rahman Jamaal, won Grand Prize in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, World Category.

Since 2013, she has been a part of Empress Unification, a collective of Bay Area female artists who perform world music in five different languages: English, Farsi, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The purpose of the collective is to highlight the works of female artists advocating for peace, love, and unity, as well as to raise funds for local women's charities.

After leaving a burgeoning career in research and international fieldwork in 2016 to fully pursue her efforts in music, Renay has successfully planted a vast number of musical seeds throughout the Americas and Europe. As CEO of her own Asteria Records, her experience with learning about the music-making process has proven to be an incredibly immersive one.

Since delving into the industry, Renay has pushed back against a number of standards imposed upon her, as she relates, "Like many people growing up in current society, I am torn between having to categorize myself in all facets of my being, be it identity, ethnicity, profession, etc. I have been told that in order to ‘be successful’ as an artist, I need to focus on politically neutral themes that are either universal to the human experience or trending, basically love, sex, and thrills.”

Needless to say, Renay has found a myriad ways to be successful while rejecting these expectations. Be sure to check out the new single today.