Inspirational Women In Hollywood: How Wendy Starland Is Helping To Shake Up The Entertainment Industry

Be willing to take constructive criticism from people you respect in your specific field. Know your own strengths and weaknesses and surround yourself with people who can compensate for your weaknesses. It takes a village to create an artist that becomes a global brand. Nobody does it alone.

As a part of our series about Inspirational Women In Hollywood, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Wendy Starland.

Meet the woman that discovered and developed 11-time Grammy, 2 time Golden Globe, and Oscar winning icon Lady Gaga — Wendy Starland. Wendy was given an assignment at the time to find the next batch of talent, and the rest is history. Fast forward to now, Wendy has become a music pioneer and made quite a name for herself.

She is most recently a mentor on AXS TV’s newest series BANDED that redefines the traditional “build-a-band” concept, giving viewers a rare look into the creative process behind making music. Wendy’s role as a mentor on this show has been providing valuable guidance to her assigned band. She helps them write, compose, and perform songs each and every week to compete to be named the next biggest supergroup.

While she continues to mentor others, she also focuses on her personal singing and music producing career. Perhaps most notably, Wendy was the Lead vocalist on Moby’s album Last Night, which went to number two on the Billboard charts. Wendy has previously written and recorded songs with or for Snoop Dogg, Ben Lee, The Wu Tang Clan, Capone of Island Def Jam’s Capone-N-Noreaga, and Apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas, and American Idol winner, Maddie Poppe…to name a few. She was honored by the The Songwriters Hall of Fame and VH1’s Best Emerging Artist.

Aside from singing and songwriting, Wendy was the Founder and CEO of philanthropic record label and marketing platform, Give Back Entertainment.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?

I was born and raised in New York City. My parents are extremely ambitious and hardworking, so they set a great example of the work ethic required to achieve success. I got my start in music with my childhood babysitter who was like a second mother to me, Rosetta Attkins. She influenced me the most as a singer. She was a gospel singer from the south, who basically became my second mother. She taught me how to sing by imitating the voices on the gospel radio station she listened to — both men and women’s voices. By the time I was 6 or 7, I had learned several techniques of how to use my voice and was able to choose the sound I wanted to distinguish myself, so I started writing songs on the piano.

My grandfather was a painter and sculptor, and my family trained me to follow in his footsteps — unlike my uncle who was a guitarist who played alongside legends like Bruce Springsteen and opened for acts like The Allman Brothers and Black Sabbath. My father played classical piano and I was influenced heavily by the melodies I heard in those compositions by composers like Mozart, Brahms, Beethoven, and Rachmaninov.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

As a teenager, I was pulled up on stage by James Brown’s saxophone player, Maceo Parker, during one of his concerts and scatted on his stage for 20 minutes. After I was done, Maceo’s bass player got down on one knee as if he was proposing, took a string off of his bass guitar and coiled it up around my ring finger. He hushed the crowd and said into the microphone, “Wendy, from this day forward you are married to music. You have a gift from God. You must devote your life to using this gift or else you will deprive the world of something so special.” I got the chills. It was written in the newspapers the next day. I made the decision in that moment to focus my life around music forever.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

I had just been touring Europe after signing to Universal and was incredibly focused on my career as a recording artist when I discovered and developed 13-time Grammy, 2-time Golden Globe, and Oscar winning icon Lady Gaga. I developed Lady Gaga’s career during the recording of Lady Gaga’s album The Fame, which received Billboard’s Album of the Decade — having logged 62 of its record-setting 108 total weeks at №1 on the Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart this decade.

When Lady Gaga got her first record deal was one of the most exciting moments for me. She was sitting on my lap in her lawyer’s office while signing on the dotted line. We had worked so hard to get to that point, and we knew that life was about to change. It will be a moment that I will always hold dear to my heart.

Lady Gaga and I wrote songs together and strategized about the project to build it into a cultural phenomenon. I could not be prouder of Lady Gaga and her accomplishments — especially in the environment of today’s music industry. It is truly mind blowing. That level of success is built on hard work, a ‘never quit’ attitude, creativity, and a deep passion for everything she does. As they say, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life. I believe that Lady Gaga‘s extreme success is built on this motto. Our team worked tirelessly to create something bigger than ourselves, and I couldn’t be prouder that we were able to achieve that by building a global brand that will cement Lady Gaga’s place in history.

It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

When I was living in New York City, I was at my favorite lounge, Bungalow 8. I met Sting while I was there and we spoke for hours about life, philosophy, family, band dynamics, touring, and of course, writing music. At the end of our conversation, his manager came up to me and said, “Sting would love to hear your music and see if we can collaborate.” He asked me to drop off my CD in the lobby at the front desk of his hotel, since Sting was going to be there all week playing at Giants Stadium. I dropped off my CD at the front desk the next day and didn’t hear back. Three days later, I got a call from Sting’s manager saying that he and Sting were there listening to my music and loved it — and that he wanted the three of us to meet after his concert that Friday to talk business. I was ecstatic. When Friday came, I was ready and couldn’t wait to meet with them. For some reason, I was unable to catch a cab (This was around 2005 before Ubers were available) and called to tell them that I would be running late. I finally saw a woman getting out of a taxi and ran over to get in, and my heel got caught in the metal Con Edison plate in the street. I fell all the way down with my cheek to the ground as the traffic light turned green and cars were whizzing by — inches from my head. I looked down at my foot, and my heel was still caught in the plate. My ankle was broken at a 90° angle from the rest of my leg in the wrong direction. I was in shock. A kind stranger helped pick me up off the ground and got me into an ambulance to go to the hospital. I called Sting‘s manager from the ambulance telling him that I broke my ankle and I wasn’t going to be able to make it. Six screws and a metal plate later, my ankle is now intact, however, I was never able to make that dream of collaborating with Sting come true. The moral of the story is, if you have an important meeting, be prepared, and make sure that everything is taken care of in advance– including reliable transportation!

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

I am very grateful to famed concert promoter Bruce Glatman. Bruce has worked with the biggest artists and bands in the world including Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, The Eagles, Rod Stewart, Barbara Streisand — the list of A list talent is endless. I was lucky enough that his wonderful wife, Themis, saw me performing live one night and loved the show. She took my information and connected me to Bruce the next day. In true Bruce Glatman fashion, he emailed me after reviewing the music on my website saying “Wendy, unfortunately you are extremely talented so I will have to help you.” I was laughing- breaking another artist was not on his agenda. It’s a ton of work. We met in his office within a week, and he started asking me who I’d like to meet, and we set up showcases for them to come hear me perform live. Everyone was a phone call away. Bruce went the extra mile for me, and I signed with a major management company shortly afterwards. He has such an enormously charismatic and warm spirit. I will forever be grateful to him for his kindness and generosity. We will be friends for life.

You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?

Without commitment mastery will never be attained. Not in sports, not in medicine, not in relationships, not in music, not in business, not in anything. Period. For it is only with the effort of devoting our time and attention to something that we can reap the rewards of literally anything.

I have obtained my position through hard work, determination, and a ton of trial and error. You need to take calculated risks in order to progress forward in any field. The fields I’ve chosen to pursue are among the most difficult to achieve success. Taking risks and finding your voice, understanding what is unique about yourself and how you can best contribute are all crucial factors in building a career that lasts.

Diversifying my interests has helped me progress further in each field. My advice would be, if you’re naturally inclined to do more than one thing — stay diverse, it keeps things interesting.

Every industry iterates and seeks improvement. What changes would you like to see in the industry going forward?

One of the most important aspects of the music industry that I would change immediately is the royalty system for artists and creators. Most people don’t realize that artists receive .004 of a penny per stream. Therefore, you would need approximately 25 million streams to earn $1000 at a rate of 0.004 cents per stream. I am currently creating a platform called MusicSoul with my Co-Founders Aris & Rhonda Persidis to address this issue head on, while also giving artists and brands the tools they need to achieve their goals. It’s a win-win across the board. Audiences everywhere will love getting to know the artists they love in a way which is more complete and fulfilling.

I believe that the pandemic has acted as an accelerator and incubator for artists to focus on creating the next big thing — in all mediums. The art, music, design, tech, virtual reality, NFTs etc. that will emerge from this period will mark a great movement in history.

You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?

I am really excited about a TV show that I am featured on with Brandon Jenner called Banded. It is the first of its kind music competition show where the contestants are all performing original music. Each of the musicians come to Nashville and are divided into five bands. They don’t know one another, and play in different genres, yet are grouped together to form something unique. Each band is assigned a Songwriter/Producer, who will help write and produce songs with their band that will be performed in front of music industry expert judges to a live audience in the 10,000 seat Nashville Municipal Auditorium. That is my role. As a Songwriter/Producer, I am responsible for the quality of the song and what happens onstage for my band while they compete for “Song Of The Night” and ultimately, a recording contract. I was so touched when I found out that the band named themselves after me — Starland. The band members of Starland are consummate professionals: Jaclyn Kenyon, Robert Mendonca, Molly Rose, William James, & Sergio Cannata. We all worked so well together and became a family during the process, for which I am truly grateful. It was because of this level of authenticity, talent, and mutual respect that we were able to win Season One of Banded: The Musician Competition.

The level of talent of all of the musicians on the show is exceptional across the board. The other Songwriter/Producers have huge resumes — having worked with iconic acts, such as Miley Cyrus, Keith, Urban, Eric Clapton, Toby Keith, and Rascal Flatts, to name a few.

Viewers are able to watch the creation of the songs, as well as the bands performing them live — so that the audience is truly a big part of the bands’ evolution and journey. The Creator of the show, Joe Norelli, and his Executive Producers Nico Albano, Robert Davidman, Gianluca Rizza & Bob Chiappardi have done such a spectacular job of making sure that Banded is truly unique in a multitude of ways.

I am confident that we will be able to break some major stars on the show — especially Starland. After having discovered and developed Lady Gaga, it would be wonderful to do it again by breaking the next iconic band. I am hopeful that Banded becomes a global franchise that brings world class talent to the forefront.

We are very interested in looking at diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in film and television? How can that potentially affect our culture and our youth growing up today?

I agree that it is crucial to have diversity represented across the entertainment industry — especially in film and television. I feel that society is finally catching up to this notion and we are seeing more cultural and racial diversity than ever before. This is so important because kids growing up need to know that their options to become the person they want to be are limitless. They need to see their heroes, who have blazed the trail before them, to know that their dreams are possible. It takes so much courage to drop convention and follow your passions. There are no guarantees of success in any industry. But if you are able to see the success of someone who shares your racial or cultural background, it helps you to believe in yourself. It helps you to know that your only limit is you. Having that unequivocal self-belief is crucial to manifesting it in the world.

What are your “10 things I wish someone told me when I first started” ?

Surround yourself with people you trust.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Make sure that your music represents your creative vision.

Work your ass off. If you don’t, there are a ton of artists who would be happy to jump in and take your place. You have to really want it and fight for it.

Have patience and know that success is not achieved overnight.

Be willing to take constructive criticism from people you respect in your specific field. Know your own strengths and weaknesses and surround yourself with people who can compensate for your weaknesses. It takes a village to create an artist that becomes a global brand. Nobody does it alone.

Protect yourself and your work. There are two legal documents that every artist in the music business should have. An NDA/non-circumvention agreement and a Finders Fee agreement. Many careers have progressed forward by using these two documents. They will come in handy.

Don’t be afraid to have the difficult business conversations up front so you don’t have more difficult business predicaments down the road.

Never forget that the song always wins! An exceptional singer with a mediocre song will fail, while an average singer with an exceptional song will have a hit! Make sure that your song will sound great if sung with only a guitar or a piano. Is the chorus simple and memorable enough for a stadium of fans to sing it back to you while you’re on stage?

There is a lot of incredible talent out there, however, talent alone isn’t enough. Being a great singer doesn’t matter if you’re not singing great songs. Having great songs won’t be obvious to record executives if they are not professionally produced.

Consistently performing those songs extremely well is essential. Having an undeniable stage presence and never quit attitude are necessary requirements. Taking constructive criticism from others is required to get to the next level. Knowing how to market yourself and your press materials is key. These things don’t happen overnight. Every artist that becomes famous has a team and needs to convince someone to believe in them enough to have others rally around them to achieve stardom. If I can be that person, then I’m happy to do it.

You must unequivocally believe in yourself. You can’t allow any voices of doubt to change your direction in life. Your path will always hand you challenges and obstacles to overcome. You have to be so resolute in your own ability to visualize your future that nobody can sway you into believing that you are not enough. You are valuable and we all have a magic within us that is meant to shine. Our purpose is to deliver our gifts to the world.

Can you share with our readers any self-care routines, practices or treatments that you do to help your body, mind or heart to thrive? Please share a story for each one if you can.

I love to meditate. I think it’s crucial to self-reflect and think about your own journey. Are you making the right choices to achieve the kind of life that you want to live? Are you finding your sense of purpose through the work you are putting into the world? Do the people around you support you in being the best version of yourself? It’s important to ask yourself these kinds of questions on a regular basis in order to stay on track. You are the star in your life’s movie. It’s up to you to live a great story. You are writing your legacy every day.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I’ve shared two of the most important quotes I know below (one of which is a poem.) I feel that both are relevant to my philosophy and how I attempt to live my life.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” — Marianne Williamson

If — by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;

If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run —

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

As I mentioned earlier, I recently Co-Founded a company with Aris and Rhonda Persidis called MusicSoul. It is a technology platform that uses a variety of new techniques to get artists paid to do what they love. My goal is to create a sustainable income stream for artists to be able to share their gifts with the world. In the process, I would like to create a middle class. Most people don’t realize the financial insecurity that comes without having a salary. Not knowing where your next dollar will be coming from is an awful way to live. Even if you are great at your craft in this day and age, it takes 25 million streams to earn $1000. The world would be a hollow place without music to fill it up with meaning, purpose, joy, and love. Music gets us through our toughest moments and heartbreak. It allows us to celebrate life to the fullest and reflect on all we’ve accomplished. I believe that music is God’s voice speaking through us — and to value it, as most streaming platforms have done at 0.004 of a penny, is criminal. I intend to flip this financial model on its head and allow artists to shine in a way that is meaningful and allows them not only to survive, but to thrive.

Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!

I would absolutely love to have lunch with Bono. His depth, sense of purpose, activism, determination, talent, and his ability to keep his finger on the pulse throughout the decades is unmatched. U2 has stayed together through thick and thin and is as relevant today as when they started. Their music has been pivotal in my development as a musician and my respect for him and the band is immeasurable.

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!