The host of Le Petit Paris, an upscale French restaurant above The Stowaway, studies the scene with amusement. Kay is a presence to behold in person. With her lithe figure, height (5 '7, tall by Japanese standards), hair styled in a blowout, and relatively natural makeup (apart from complimentary dark gray eyeshadow), Kay is reminiscent of a beauty pageant queen. Tonight Kay is performing a sold-out show at The Stowaway, her second-ever show in LA. Like her first (an acoustic set at Hotel Ziggy on Sunset Boulevard, just over a week before this one, also sold out), tonight’s show was promoted solely through Instagram with less than two weeks’ notice.
In Japan, Kay is an illustrious singer with a career spanning almost 25 years, since she debuted in 1999 at the age of 13. In addition to her hit songs such as “Koi ni Ochitara,” Kay is known for her unique cultural background: born and raised in Yokohama to a Korean mother and Black American father, she is ethnically Korean and Black but culturally Japanese. The Le Petit Paris host, a white man, nods with empathy, citing his experience as an Italian man working in a French restaurant. But he’s nice enough: despite not being affiliated with The Stowaway, he agrees to watch the equipment as Kay, her team, and I head down the stairs to the venue.
The parking situation has resulted in Kay being 30 minutes late, but she remains poised and perfectly polite. Kay has an easy and genuine smile displayed frequently on album covers and in interactions with her staff, The Stowaway staff, the band, the fans who line up for hours, and me. She doesn’t say a word as she takes in the grimy green room, a smattering of couches next to a supply rack and security footage panel, with her trademark smile. It is here that, as her stylist adds waves to her already seemingly perfect hair, Kay recounts her story from the beginning.
Crystal Kay Williams was a military kid born on a naval base in Yokohama on Feb. 26, 1986. She mostly grew up in a single-parent household: her parents divorced when she was “8 or 9,” so her mom, a fellow singer who released an album before Kay’s birth, took over the reins of parenting, and later mentoring her music career. Kay clarifies later during the show, to the sound of collective gasps from fans, that she’s been singing in commercial jingles since the tender age of 4. But Kay is insistent that her mom wasn’t a stage mom, despite people from the outside labeling her as one because she was “on it,” always looking out for Kay’s best interests.
