Des Moines R&B artist Entre Luche brings Recording Academy experience back to Iowa

At 27 years old, Daniel Luckett, aka Entre Luche, has earned his place in The Recording Academy class of 2024, cementing his role in the Grammy Awards for the next five years. The Grammy Awards are the only peer-voted award in music.

Passion and talent for music runs through the branches of Luckett’s family tree. Luckett’s late grandfather is Grammy Award-winning blues musician and influential songwriter Willie Dixon and his cousin is Chicago Blues Hall of Fame inductee Tomiko Dixon.

Tomiko Dixon and singer EJ Ouellette, both existing members, referred Luckett to the Recording Academy.

“Just because you get two referrals does not mean that you get into the Recording Academy, but I was fortunate enough to be one of the 11,000 members to be a part, and then out of 11,000, 5,000 of those are voting members,” Luckett said. “And to be one of 5,000 in America, I think that is super sweet.”

Iowa does not have its own chapter, so Luckett votes in the Chicago Chapter. It’s a prestigious accomplishment that feels “surreal” to Luckett as an Iowan in his 20s.

One other Iowan is a member of the class of 2024, Grammy-nominated fiddler Kathryn Severing Fox. Ironically, Fox teaches at the same college where Luckett studied classical and jazz voice and piano, Southwestern Community College in Creston.

He shed light on the voting process.

“Honestly, there’s a whole bunch of submissions, and you take weeks going through the submissions for particular categories … that you pick to vote for, and then there’s other categories, but that are pretty much mandatory,” Luckett said.

He said seeing the voting process on a national level will allow him to bring ideas home to the Iowa Music Awards.

“How can we be more proficient? How can we be comparable to the things that are national?” Luckett said. “So again, when we do have people in those spaces and we shine light back on the Iowa Music Awards … who knows what the IMAs will look like in 10 years from now?”

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As a Grammy voting member, Luckett is a part of Grammy U, the Recording Academy’s program for the next generation of music professionals ages 18 to 29.

“I feel like that’s the impact that I can have … to mentor them and be like, hey, like even a guy from Iowa moving around can be in this position and this is how you get into this position,” Luckett said.

Becoming Entre Luche

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Luckett has been entertaining since he was a kid. Growing up, he performed with the Des Moines-based group, Iowa Kids, and in the children’s choir at his church. Through poetry, he was introduced to songwriting. In high school, he joined the school gospel choir, which he described as “extremely therapeutic.”

Luckett attended Southwestern Community College, where he played basketball. Shooting hoops didn’t last long, he said. Instead, he dove into music.

“But around that time, I also lost my niece and it was a really hard time for me, trying to balance being a college student and then also having all of these life experiences, and not really knowing what to do with it at such a young age,” Luckett said. “And I turned to writing. Writing was my therapy.”

The name Entre Luche comes from a misunderstanding with his college French professor. When the professor said “entre,” Luckett thought the professor was calling him by the wrong name. When he corrected the professor, he found out the professor was telling him to enter the classroom. Entre stuck around as a nickname.

Luche is a derivative of his last name, which means “light.”

“Entre Luche is enter light, or enter God’s masterpiece, and I feel like to be given that name and to already possess that name … it was destiny,” Luckett said.

He left college to pursue his music career and worked for the mental health nonprofit Hip-Hope.

“I think that especially when we talk about Black people and mental health, we don’t talk about it enough in our community,” Luckett said.

Like the artist himself, Luckett’s music has two sides. There’s R&B, representing the “really deep, analytical lovey-dovey guy,” and dance music and Afro beats for the fun-loving dancer.

Luckett’s days are spent working and being a father of two, while his nights are spent building his business.

Since 2019, his professional career has propelled him beyond Iowa and the Midwest. Luckett has had eight songs played on rapper Eminem’s hip-hop Sirius XM Radio station Shade 45 and his song “On Me” was Grammy considered for R&B Song of the Year in 2024. He’s performed at the Official SXSW Music Festival, Chicago House of Blues and the Chicago Theater. He’s opened for Nelly and Lil Durk, and his music has been streamed more than 1.5 million times.

Closer to home, Luckett has won back to back Iowa Music Awards for R&B Artist of the year as well as Single of the Year and Music Video of the Year.

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Next on his list? Clenching a Grammy nominee.

“I’m just looking for that staple Entre single, staple Iowa sound that is going to help propel me to the next level of my career, and I’m using the Grammy’s and the Grammy committee as an opportunity to find some amazing people to work with,” Luckett said.

He’s excited to use the next five years to support the next generation of artists through music industry education and mentorship. Talent is one part of the equation. The other part is understanding the business, building a network and leaning on the network when you need help, he said.

Beyond that, he said Iowa needs more opportunities and resources for developing artists — and education within the Iowa music community on how to apply for grants.

For example, he said the state could use more venues that are for developing artists.

“What is that like middle ground space where you already have a solid fan base, but the smaller venues are too small for you now, but the bigger venues are too big?” Luckett said. “I feel like there’s just so many different areas where we still need to grow.”

He’s passionate about educating artists on the business side and is creating his own program to formally do so.

“A lot of young artists are just putting music out there and not protecting themselves, and so all in all, I think that there’s another conversation that needs to be had about the education and how to actually grow your brand, your business, the financial education, financial literacy, those aspects … and I feel like that is an area that we do lack,” Luckett said. “And I know that there are resources out there, but again, it comes to that access and knowing, and we need that.

“We need that right now more than ever, because like I said, (there are) so many talented artists, but I don’t think they have the education to really get them to the next level, and what does that next level actually look like?”

He gave this piece of advice to other artists: “In this game, there’s a lot of wins, there’s a lot of losses, and a lot of times, you can be distracted by social media or all of these other things, but to stay grounded, to stay present and know that you’re on your own path and your own journey.”

Comments: bailey.cichon@thegazette.com