Will.i.am was left wondering, “where is the love?” after Fergie permanently waved goodbye to the band in 2017. Despite previously claiming that she was irreplaceable, it really didn’t take too long — a matter of months, in fact — for Will.i.am to install a Fergie 2.0. The Black Eyed Peas’ newest member, J. Rey Soul, started lowkey jamming with the band in 2018, per Distractify. However, over time she took on a more prominent role.
In 2020, it was announced that the Filipino-American was the Peas’ new leading lady. And J. Rey Soul, who was born Jessica Reynoso, wasted no time rolling her sleeves up and getting to work on the band’s new album. “It’s gonna be great,” the singer-songwriter told Billboard. “It’s very Afrobeat, Latin vibe, dance — just very uplifting music, which is what we need right now at this time of our life, you know?”
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It transpired that J. Rey Soul was no stranger to the Peas; in fact, they went way back. She’d met Apl.de.Ap in 2013 when he was a coach, and she was a finalist on “The Voice of The Philippines” talent show. They got to spend a lot of time together, as she was also a member of his hand-picked team. “The Voice was amazing! It was really nerve-wracking and stressful, but it opened a lot of opportunities that I could never have imagined,” J.Rey Soul told CelebMix.
