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9 October 2012, 17:00
The Motown Record vice-president has praised the 'Can't Say No' star's vocal talent and potential.
Ne-Yo has praised UK singer-songwriter Conor Maynard and revealed he sees potential for the rising star to be as a good as soul legend Marvin Gaye in the future.
The 'Let Me Love You' singer teamed up with Conor recently on his single 'Turn Around', and, since taking over as vice-president of Motown Record out in the US, says he sees a huge amount of talent in the 'Can't Say No' singer.
"Conor is amazing. He has the talent, the potential of those guys like Marvin [Gaye] and The Temptations," Ne-Yo revealed to the Daily Star this week. "His tone is insane. It's really, really rare that I come across a person that has a tone I wish I had,"
And he's a good kid mentally. That's too few and far between," Ne-Yo continued, heaping praise on the 'Vegas Girl' singer's talents.
The 'Let's Go' singer went on to say that Conor is "not taking the world too serious" and admits he warned the 19 year-old to "cling onto that".
Ne-Yo also dismissed the inevitable comparisons of Brighton born Conor to Canadian pop star Justin Bieber, and promised that the former will "stand the test of time" in the music industry.
View a picture of Conor Maynard and Ne-Yo together in the music video for 'Turn Around' below:
"I don't feel like he's a copycat of Justin Bieber," Ne-Yo added. "Conor is going to be around long enough for people to go, 'That's Conor Maynard', as opposed to, 'He sounds like Bieber'."
Conor Maynard released his debut album 'Contrast' over the summer and is set to kick off a UK tour at the end of October.