"Queer Eye"'s Jai Goes Pop

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy's culture guru Jai Rodriguez is working on his debut album for a potential summer release.

"I have an R&B/pop flavor that can easily go into a rock thing," says the Long Island native, adding that his record has "an Anastasia sound with a Justin Timberlake feel."

Before landing the Queer Eye gig advising straight men on romance, art, music and dance, Rodriguez performed cabaret shows at New York's XL club. The singer covered the likes of Justin Timberlake, Mary J. Blige, Pink and Christina Aguilera backed by a live band.

"It was packed," says Chad Richardson, one half of the Canadian songwriting/production team jACK that is working with Rodriguez on the record. "Everyone kept saying to him, 'Why don't you have something of your own to sell?' So Jai came to us. And I said, 'We'd love to do a track for you."

Rodriguez recorded the Kylie Minogue-style "Love Is Good" and sold it off the stage and on the Internet, moving more than two thousand copies. He intended to record a full album right away, then Queer Eye came calling.

Though the show films through October, Rodriguez plans to spend his weekends recording and performing, and he hopes to land a record deal soon.

"I'm going to try to utilize the amount of publicity that the show has given me," he says, "but I want to work with people that are great, even if I stay with a boutique-ish type feel . . . By the way, it's really cool talking about stuff other than makeovers."

KAREN BLISS and KIRK MILLER
(February 5, 2004)