Karyn White, whose discography includes slow jams and a single called “Slow Down,” will hardly do so when she performs Friday during the Maurice Watts Annual Classic R&B Music Festival.

The “Superwoman” singer, on the bill for the five-day event’s opening concert at Kalahari Resorts & Conventions in Pocono Manor, will stage a “high-impact show. I’m a high-energy performer.”

Still, White hears about people who “just want to hear me sing. My influences are Tina Turner, James Brown. When I’m sitting down, it’s over. It’s never who I’ve been.”

The Los Angeles native and Atlanta resident, marking her first time playing the longtime festival, finds being a great entertainer “naturally in my DNA. It was the little girl in me that loved the attention.”

Growing up, White sang in the church choir, won pageants, wrote songs and danced. Influences included Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Gladys Knight, general Motown and a choreographer sister.

As White got older, “I started to focus on male performers. I didn’t want to copy women. Michael, Prince, Luther Vandross. Those probably were my top guys I listened to.”

White, whose current male favorites include Raphael Saadiq and Lenny Kravitz, was a member of R&B/funk band Legacy in her teens. The group served as a training camp, as did jazz-fusion musician Jeff Lorber’s 1986 pop/R&B crossover album “Private Passion.”

Lorber’s Warner Bros. set featured White on multiple tracks. The twosome performed the single “Facts of Love” on “Soul Train” and Joan Rivers’ “Late Show,” also opening on tour for Chaka Khan.

“Warner Bros. got to see what my gifts were,” White said. “A chemistry was building.”

Thanks to “Facts of Love,” a top 30 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart, Warner Bros. signed White to a record deal. White’s eponymous 1988 debut album, released during the music video’s golden age, included work by songwriter/producer team L.A. Reid and Babyface. The set topped 1 million in sales.

New-jack-swing bops “The Way You Love Me” and “Secret Rendezvous,” along with the anthemic underappereciated-female ballad “Superwoman,” hit the Hot 100’s top 10. Meanwhile, R&B-focused single “Love Saw It,” a duet ballad with Babyface, dominated urban radio.

White, when recording game-changer “Superwoman” at 22 or 23, did not “realize the effect that song would have, that it would be evergreen. As I traveled the world, I felt the power of that song.”

The singer, a backup vocalist on late-1980s hits by Bobby Brown and Sheena Easton, did, though, fear a 1991 Knight/Patti LaBelle/Dionne Warwick “Superwoman” cover would overshadow her recording.

“Three icons. It’s bad enough having one of them do it, but three? I didn’t lose any momentum with my record. It was an honor to have the three women do the song.”

Songwriter-producer team Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the latter to whom White was married from 1992 to 1999, worked on White’s 1991 sophomore album “Ritual of Love.” Reid and Babyface did not return, as they had a record label and, per White, their own version of her in Toni Braxton.

White co-wrote 10 of the album’s dozen tracks, including Hot 100 No. 1 “Romantic,” near-top 10 “The Way I Feel About You” and soulful album cut “Tears of Joy.” White felt the latter was single-worthy.

Both Jam/Lewis and Babyface contributed to 1994’s “Make Him Do Right,” which while not faring as well as past efforts, found larger success outside the U.S. South Africa, in particular, embraced the album, which included the ballads “Can I Stay with You” and “I’d Rather Be Alone.”

The entertainer, who in part stepped away from the business for 18 years to raise daughter Ashley, was later surprised to learn of her superstar status in South Africa.

“After Apartheid lifted, it was about women getting their powers, being recognized. Coming back after Apartheid, being able to come to South Africa, it blew me away. I had no clue. They had to write reports on my songs. Seven-year-olds know who I am. I’m part of their curriculum.

“It’s been tougher coming back in the United States,” she continued. “South Africa, they never forgot.”

White, who worked in interior design and real estate during her music hiatus, returned in 2012 with her fourth studio album “Carpe Diem.” Also an actress, she later executive produced, starred in and recorded the soundtrack for the 2017 semi-autobiographical film “Gale and the Storm.”

New projects, meanwhile, fall under White’s “dream-chaser era.” In mid-January, she will unleash retro-soul single “You’re Gonna Want Me Back,” which contains an interpolation of Warwick’s 1973 track “You’re Gonna Need Me.”

White, with other new tracks such as “Let’s Go” and “Take Care of My Heart,” plans to release a new song at least every couple of months.

In the youth-driven music business, “somebody’s gotta be that girl,” said White, whose vibe has her feeling 30.

Among other projects, White will executive produce and star in the psychological thriller “Penitence,” currently in development. She also hopes 2026 sees the first “Superwoman” conference for the Karyn White Foundation, which inspires, educates and empowers young female entrepreneurs.

In the meantime, “I’m having a great time being back out there, performing,” White said. “There’s no expiration date on greatness. I’m having the best time of my life.”