Danger Love Saint: Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders Jessi, Clair, and Bri
Jumping full force into the Nashville music scene with their debut single, “Drive,” Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders Bri, Clair, and Jessi comprise the female country group, Danger Love Saint. Though they came together to form the group over the past couple of years, Danger Love Saint is the culmination of each of their individual, lifelong passions for music and entertainment. In Part 1 of their interview with UltimateCheerleaders, Jessi discussed her path as it merged with her talented friends Bri and Clair to create Danger Love Saint (DLS). With the support and mentoring of Titans Cheerleader Director Stacie Kinder, DLS is making the most of a unique opportunity. As they take the stage to be both a hot, new Nashville act while also being the Titans Cheerleaders performance group, in Part 2, Bri, Clair, and Jessi share with us their musical influences, their songwriting style, what it is like to sing at halftime during a Titans game, and Bri compares/contrasts her Titans experience with performing on another NFL team, the Charger Girls.
Bri, Clair, and Jessi are all third-year Titans Cheerleaders, and the idea of forming a musical group started right after their rookie season. Immediately they noticed that they had a unique sound when they first began harmonizing. They realized that, although their voices as individuals are quite unique to one another, collectively, they just plain worked. After DLS recorded their first demo, “Quarterback Crush” (which was heard in the opening credits of Jessi’s World of Jenks episode), they were all in shock as to how amazing they sounded as a group. That was the moment they knew they had something very special.
Bri is originally from the West Coast, growing up in Keizer, Oregon. Her musical talents budded early, as Bri recalls, “I started playing the piano at age three and picked up the guitar shortly after.” Dancing began for Bri even earlier, saying, “As soon as I could walk! My mother owned a Jazzercize studio, and that was my daycare: leotards, tights, and leg warmers. I never stopped moving to or loving music. My family is very musical. I have an aunt that is the former musical director for Western Oregon University. Between her tutelage and my love for playing instruments, winding up in Nashville was destiny.” Besides receiving the gift of musical talent, Bri also treasures her family’s support of her endeavors, saying, “My family has been so supportive of my dreams and the path that I have chosen.”
Danger Love Saint with a very special shout out to all of the Ultimate Cheerleaders
Clair is originally from Clinton, Mississippi, and began singing and dancing at the age of three. Clair spent her youth in the musical theatre circuit of Mississippi, with credits that include Grease, Newsies, and West Side Story. She later toured all over the country in the elite Mississippi show choir, Attache. Clair is a graduate of Ole Miss with a degree in Marketing. Since moving to Nashville, Clair was chosen to grace the cover of the Titans Cheerleaders Swimsuit Calendar.
As described in Part 1, originally from Cocoa Beach, Florida, Jessi grew up studying music and dance. Jessi’s voluminous list of credits include Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance as a finalist, starring in Glorianna’s new video, “Wanna Take You Home,” and being featured on MTV’s World of Jenks, in addition to being a dancer with Christina Aguilera and Omarion, and on awards shows like BET and, recently with Luke Bryan and Blake Shelton, the Country Music Awards in Nashville. Jessi’s training as a performer includes the Broadway Dance Center in New York and The Edge and Millennium Dance Complex in Los Angeles.
As you can see, with lives stretching from coast to coast, from Oregon to the Atlantic coast of Florida, three young women were on separate musical journeys that would eventually converge in Music City. Now with their own first recording released, hey Danger Love Saint, what was your first ever album as young music fanatics? For Clair, it was Shania Twain, “The Woman in Me.” Jessi’s first album was by another musical trio of three women expressing three emotional states, TLC’s “CrazySexyCool.” Bri’s first album was for all of the right reasons someone gets their first album. It was Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice, Baby,” as Bri remembers, “It was a birthday present, I liked his hair!”
Clair during the October 23rd Titans home game
Bri’s started out performing in Oregon, but soon was seeing the world. “Highlights for me as a musician have been traveling to Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar entertaining my heroes, the United State Military,” says Bri. “I come from a military family and am an active member of The Sweethearts for Soldiers. As a dancer I have performed at live shows and music videos including Trace Adkins, The European Sensation: Plan B, Brad Paisley, and John Rich. I will be traveling to Kuwait once again in December with The Sweethearts for a Christmas Tour to entertain the very last Americans to leave Iraq.”
Being a Titans Cheerleader is not the first time that Bri has performed on the NFL sidelines. Prior to Nashville, life brought her to southern California, and Bri was a San Diego Charger Girl. “I was a Charger Girl for two years,” shares Bri. “I always wanted to be a professional cheerleader, so when I moved to San Diego to attend San Diego State University, I worked very hard to prepare for the Charger Girl Auditions.”
Bri graduated from San Diego State University, with a degree in Communications and minor in Dance. When Nashville was her next destination, returning to the NFL sidelines was also part of this latest stage of Bri’s life. “It was a blessing for me to move to another great city that had a NFL team, when I moved to Nashville,” Bri explains. “I traveled to the south to explore songwriting and becoming a country singer. It just worked out that one week after I moved here, the 2009 Titans Cheerleading auditions were beginning. I knew that trying out for another team would be a fun way to make friends, get plugged in to the community, and continue performing for my favorite sport.”
During the October 23rd game, Bri and the Titans Cheerleaders wore their breast cancer awareness outfits
Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders Bri, Jessi, and Clair on Danger Love Saint's disc cover for their new single
If you are looking for some “Drive,” look no further than Danger Love Saint. Three third-year Tennessee Titans Cheerleaders, Bri, Clair, and Jessi, formed Danger Love Saint, their Nashville based trio, and they have the drive to put their heart and soul into their musical venture, the drive to have maximal fun during this adventure, and “Drive” is also the title of their recently released debut single. Bri, Clair, and Jessi have a collective sum total of coolness that is way, way too much for a single feature story, so today, the focus is on Jessi, who is no stranger the spotlight, on stage or otherwise. Jessi was featured in the MTV documentary series, World of Jenks (check out the episode clicking here) which, though definitely her own story, also shows many common dimensions of the reality of the pro cheerleader experience. Jessi also has an impressive dance resume, including being a finalist on So You Think You Can Dance, amidst scores of other credits. Jessi shared with UltimateCheerleaders how World of Jenks came about, how her time with the Pussycat Dolls started the wheels turning to form Danger Love Saint, how a dance job brought her through the Panama Canal, how to spot an excellent dancer, and how Jessi’s sister turns a traditional Christmas song into comedy gold.
Jessi grew up in Cocoa Beach, Florida, and soon enough was showing the traits that would eventually lead to Danger Love Saint; Jessi loves to put on a show. “When I was four years old, I used to make my whole family come into the living room, and I would put on shows on our fireplace, it was my stage,” recalls Jessi. “I would make my sister sell tickets for the show. I would go to my mom’s closet, and make costumes out of all of her clothes, tie my dad’s ties around as a belt. I was doing that at four years old and I never really stopped. I still love to design costumes, do hair and makeup, choreograph, and perform. It’s just not dancing; I love the whole creative aspect of trying to entertain people.”
Jessi started dance classes when she was young, and although her parents were willing to broaden her activities, it always came back to dance. Jessi remembers, “My parents tried to put me into other things, like Girl Scouts, tee-ball, swimming, and tennis, and I was always saying, ‘Can I just take ballet? I just want to take ballet class.’”
Danger Love Saint with a very special shout out to all of the Ultimate Cheerleaders
Singing also became one of Jessi’s passions. “I started singing in fourth grade in chorus, and just loved it, loved it,” Jessi says. “I tried out for all-state and all-county, and was in all those kind of choirs. I was in a site reading choir. And I always have a private voice coach, and I was a music major in college. I was always much better naturally at dancing, but I just loved studying music. I played the violin for about five years, and I played viola. I was the orchestra/choir geek all through school. I cheered one year in high school, but definitely more the drama, band, orchestra geeky kid.”
After winning a noted state dance high school competition in Florida, Jessi was chosen to go to New York to the Broadway Dance Center scholarship program and Marymount Manhattan College. But after her first year, September 11th occurred, and Jessi’s family persuaded her to move back home from New York.
Coming home from NYC, Jessi danced on a cruise ship for a year, and was able to see a big chunk of the globe. “I was really lucky,” Jessi says. “I did a world itinerary, so I was able to see Australia, New Zealand, maybe a dozen different countries in Asia, all of the South Pacific islands, San Francisco, Alaska. I went through the Panama Canal, Central America, South America. So I looked at it as a cool opportunity.”
Jessi during the October 23rdTitans game against the Texans
Dancing on the cruise line also showed Jessi a broader scope of performing. “I was only 19,” Jessi explains. “I walked in thinking, I love pop, top 40s, hip hop, all this stuff, and I was way out of my element. They said, ‘You need to calm down, because this is Music Man, Le Mis, and Annie Get Your Gun.’ I was really out of my element, but I loved it.”
Post-cruise year, Jessi returned to the US and majored in music. “Then just kind of on a whim, I auditioned for this show called Wade Robson Project that was on MTV for one season,” Jessi says. “It was for dancers, and I got that and it shot in LA, so I moved out to LA for the summer to shoot that show, and then ended up staying for six more years.”
During that time in Los Angeles, Jessi built up a substantial resume of dance accomplishments, such that if they all were listed, it would break the record for the world’s longest run-on sentence. Besides being one of the finalists on the third season of the So You Think You Can Dance, Jessi has also danced for Christina Aguilera and the Pussycat Dolls Burlesque Revue. Jessi’s connection to the Pussycat Dolls was a key experience that eventually led her to create Danger Love Saint. “I did that for two years, it was the last big job I did in LA,” Jessi recalls about the Pussycat Dolls. “They had a subgroup in Vegas, and then they had the top group, and then they created a new subgroup in LA, and we performed at the Viper Room. And also whenever the top group was requested at certain appearances and they couldn’t, we were the group that went instead. Robin Antin created the Pussycat Dolls, and it was her idea to have groups of Pussycat Dolls everywhere, like a club in New York, a club in Miami, one in Vegas, one in LA, and we were the first group she started.”
Angie prior to the October 23rd game against the Texans
Singing is a core part of Angie’s soul, but she listens to her heart on how best to progress towards her musical goals. Therefore, her path does not always take the steps that others expect. So far, the journey that started in her hometown near Bay City, Michigan, has taken Angie to Nashville, aka “Music City,” aka “Nashvegas.” But Angie inserted a twist into a singer’s journey, and added being a Tennessee Titans Cheerleader as an opportunity to combine her performer’s passion with her love of football. Bright and articulate, Angie shared with UltimateCheerleaders her experiences of being a young woman finding her voice in Nashville, how her grandfather’s letters show that leaving home to do what one needs to do runs in her family, her admiration of a Beatle, and her hometown’s connection to a group that was hyped as “the new Beatles.”
The hometowns of this season’s Titans Cheerleaders are from every possible different direction from Nashville, and Angie, along with Yalea, hails from Michigan. “I grew up in a small community in Michigan just outside of Bay City called Kawkawlin,” Angie says. “I lived there throughout my childhood until I moved to Nashville to pursue my singing career at 22 years old.” Bay City seems to be doing its darnedest to become “pro cheerleader capital of the world,” with Angie on the Titans, and three members of the unofficial Detroit Pride Cheerleaders. Angie comments on her home state team and their cheerleaders, “I know (Detroit Pride Cheerleader) Megan, we grew up together. With the season they are having, I’m really, really excited for Detroit in general, and the girls that are part of that. I hope that they can officially be cheerleaders.”
For Angie, her first “spotlights” as a singer were the lights in her own home. “Singing has always been an integral part of my life,” recalls Angie. “At two years old, I began performing for my first audience, my family. My parents and older brother have always been my biggest fans. I walked around the house with my Fisher-Price microphone and hand held speaker, belting out the lyrics to many of Whitney Houston’s top hits. I spent countless hours ‘entertaining’ family and friends with my favorite hits of Judy Garland, Shirley Temple, and anything Classic Hollywood.”
Angie (second from right) during player introductions
But outside of the home, Angie was a shy girl, but luckily a teacher saw the signs of a future performer. “It was my first grade teacher who gave me my first ‘true’ performance opportunity,” remembers Angie. “I went to a private Catholic school and was involved in the children’s choir. We were rehearsing for an upcoming Christmas program and the choir director decided to give me the role as the soloist. I remember being so tiny that two older children in the choir had to help me onto a milk crate so I could reach the microphone. I was six years old and my solo was ‘Jesus Is Beautiful.’”
And has been seen time and time again, “shy” does not mean a lack of talent and ambition, and Angie found her comfort zone singing in front of audiences. “I knew at a very young age I wanted to be an entertainer,” explains Angie. “When the lights were on and the stage was mine, it was difficult to get me off the stage. The more applause, the more I wanted to continue entertaining. This was very different from my personality when eyes were not on me. I grew up as a very shy girl who usually only spoke when spoken to. My school and singing teachers found it hard to believe that this soft-spoken, shy girl was the same person who stole the show when on any stage.”
Singing has always been important to Angie, but she has also always seen “the big picture” that success in life requires multiple endeavors. “From a young age, being in the ‘spotlight’ was always a part of my life whether it was singing my first solo in kindergarten, participating in musical theater, or competing in many talent pageants across the state,” Angie says. “Throughout my childhood, I performed as much as possible. Singing at church-related events and at community activities was a regular experience for me. I continued to keep this focus into my teenage years, but also knew how important my studies were, being involved in the community through volunteer opportunities, my integral role on the high school cheerleading squad, and my first job as a sales clerk at a department store. Even with this busy schedule, my dedication to music continued to grow.”
Angie spent much of the October 23rd game in LP Field suites, including the suite of Titans owner Bud Adams
Former Miami Dolphins Cheerleader turned rocker Melissa Burnos is interviewed about her music career in the latest issue of Adaras Magazine. The online version of the interview is posted in one of those fancy e-magazines that’s impossible to cut and past, but you can read it all here.
Former Miami Dolphins Cheerleader Melissa Burnos has released a new single, NME.
Coming soon to iTunes.
