YasmineEmani, 23, grew up in Park Hill and graduated in 2020 from Denver School of the Arts. She’s now an independent Western soul singer performing locally while dreaming of a move to New York City. In the meantime, she lives at home with her younger brother and her mom, who drives her from gig to gig.
She performed at the Colorado Black Arts Festival earlier this summer, and she stopped by Colorado Public Radio’s Colorado Matters studio last week. Dressed in a sparkly silver dress and matching glittery make-up and sandals, she performed a Tiny Desk Concert, singing a few songs accompanied by her guitarist, Jake Alvarez, and keyboardist Wes Watkins.
This weekend, she’ll perform at the Underground Music Showcase, which is running July 25-27. There will be three outdoor stages and a dozen inside locations around Denver’s South Broadway. The event expects to attract tens of thousands of fans. It’s the final iteration of UMS in its current form, which has been running 25 years and only skipped its 2020 edition due to the pandemic.
The showcase is ending after a quarter-century because of higher production costs, lower ticket sales and other challenges, the organizers told Denverite. “UMS 2025 is the final showcase in this form. Festivals are hard to sustain,” its website states.
