Empire is coming to an end after 6 wild and jaw-dropping seasons. The music drama will close out with 18 episodes instead of the originally intended 20 episodes. Empire’s production shut down early due to the coronavirus pandemic so the cast and crew didn’t get to shoot a proper series finale. HollywoodLife talked with Serayah, who has played Tiana since the first season, about what we can expect from this final episode. “You’ll definitely get some closure and see where their lives are going after Empire,” Serayah told HollywoodLife.
Leading up to this final episode, Tiana’s on-again, off-again love and father of her child, Hakeem, got married to Maya in a wild Vegas wedding. Tiana was shocked by the news. “I think she feels a little caught off guard because usually anything that happens between them they kind of know before it’s going on,” Serayah said. “I think that marriage caught her off guard because she has to read it from a blog site and she’s pissed about it. If you’re going to marry somebody, especially Maya because I don’t think she likes her, I think she would have liked to know that.”
Even though fans love Hakeem and Tiana together, Serayah doesn’t necessarily think they should be endgame. “I would love for Tiana to stand on her own and just be into the business,” Serayah admitted. “I feel like she always is either with Hakeem or another guy, so I would love for her to stand on her own. But you know if Hakeem was seriously going to be taking things to the next level maybe she would be happy with that as well.”
The producers and writers have hope that they will be able to film a proper finale in the future. Serayah is totally on board with that. “Honestly, I would love to do that,” she said. “That would be awesome. Because we would get closure as a cast. I mean, we didn’t get to do a watch party or anything like that. As far as story purposes, it would help out a lot.”
Serayah also dropped her latest single “Never Be The Same” featuring SIMYAI. The song is written by Serayah and LXRD Rossi with ATL Jacob producing. She dropped the music video as well and it’s the perfect quarantine-inspired video. She revealed the story behind the music video. “We were sitting on the song for a few days and wondering what we could do to make this fun,” she said. “Because the song is up-tempo and fun and we want people to feel that. I said I had a jacuzzi and then it turned into getting in the back of the car to do some shots outside. We had our friends just trailing us and shooting us from the other car. It was like a full little production quarantine-style. I stayed up and I edited it. I love it because it’s like a nostalgic feel but there’s also the quarantine element. Everyone’s going through this together and we just wanted people to have some sort of escape.”
Serayah will be releasing her first EP, Ray, in June. These songs will show a side to Serayah you’ve never seen before. “I wanted it to feel really personal,” Serayah admitted. “I’m excited to share vulnerability in general. I feel like the savage vibes are great, but I feel like vulnerability is worth that. To get people to really be in touch with themselves again, I’m really excited to bring that vibe back.”
Serayah will be hosting a special Instagram Live tonight in honor of the series finale, celebrating with Guillotine Vodka and Dr. Sebi’s Natural Relief Tea. The Instagram Live will feature special guests from the past and will start at 8:30 p.m. PT on her Instagram account.