Finding Your Roots, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. debuts its 10th season on PBS this week. In its upcoming first episode, Gates unpacks the surprising family history of R&B legend Ciara, discovering that, while CiCi grew up in Georgia, her roots are in New York City.

According to an exclusive clip for Blavity’s Shadow and Act, Gates explained to the singer that her great-grandparents were Harlemites in the 1920s. Though Ciara was unaware that her connection to New York ran that deep, she said that she felt her grandparents emanated New York energy.

“I could feel the New York. I could feel that part of them,” she said during the show.

Gates explained that CiCi’s grandparents were living in the area during an exciting time: the Harlem Renaissance. He called the neighborhood a “cultural mecca of the Black world” at the time.

“It was a glorious time,” he said.

He later revealed that one of the era’s most influential Black jazz musicians lived close to Ciara’s family.

“Duke Ellington lived eight blocks away from your ancestors,” he revealed, adding that “they could go to a club at night and they could hear Louis Armstrong playing.”

“That’s amazing,” the singer marveled.

Season 10 of Finding Your Roots features actors like Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams, The Color Purple‘s Danielle Brooks, Oscar winner Brendan Fraser, and comedian Tracy Morgan. Other singers included in the season are Sammy Hagar, Alanis Morissette and Dionne Warwick. The season’s first episode, which also features Morissette, comes out Jan. 2.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week