Music has always been a part of me. The feeling a note or chord can evoke from within. The way a song can transition one’s entire mood and meaningfully take an individual to a new place with just a simple line or lyric. That power, that ability, that gift, is a blessing from God, and music is what I have always felt compelled to do. It has been in my blood since childhood, listening to my dad’s Parliament Funkadellic albums or Sly and the Family Stone. That unmistakable cool, spirituality and...
Music has always been a part of me. The feeling a note or chord can evoke from within. The way a song can transition one’s entire mood and meaningfully take an individual to a new place with just a simple line or lyric. That power, that ability, that gift, is a blessing from God, and music is what I have always felt compelled to do. It has been in my blood since childhood, listening to my dad’s Parliament Funkadellic albums or Sly and the Family Stone. That unmistakable cool, spirituality and rhythm drew me to the music, captivating me like a moth to light. The music made each day brighter and is now paramount. The song of my life started August 10, 1986 in Washington, D.C. and I was the first born of 5 siblings in an interracial family with an African-American mother (Adrienne Balanc) and Yugoslavian father (Matija Balanc). We maintained a strong and humble spiritual foundation and consequently, my first taste of performing was in our church’s Gospel choir at age seven. I was a tiny girl with a huge voice. I would get up in front of the entire congregation (predominantly black) and belt my heart out, testing my vibrato that I so carefully learned listening to my Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey cassettes. Music felt so natural and necessary to me, and I constantly wrote songs in notebooks along with poems and short stories. They have never ceased as my outlets. At age nine, I dove into the vocal programs available in school and continued participating as a first soprano until high school graduation (2004). My instructors always told me I had quite a gift, which they annexed with exposure to harmonization, vocal control techniques and very traditional selections. I remained a student outside the classroom, singing along to anything soulful, Earth Wind and Fire, Erykah Badu, Marvin Gaye, Phyllis Hyman, Musiq, Alicia Keys, and the list goes on and on. I also sang at every school talent show, loving the feeling of being on stage and transforming the sensations in the room, taking the audience away to a place they were not a moment before I began singing. That place so many singers had taken me so many times surrounded me more and more until I could envision no path for my future that did not involve singing. I needed that feeling. When I started college in 2004, I began infiltrating the D.C. area Go-Go scene, and by then, collaborative studio projects with numerous artists were routine. I became lead singer for INI band, and developed a fan base performing at local venues and open mics in the city. This lasted three years until my production deal with Ne-yo’s Compound Entertainment, the result of the Ne-yo Talent Search in Washington D.C. summer 2006. Out of the 2,000 or so hopeful competitors, I was blessed to be chosen for the contract. It was a proud but humbling moment because I knew I was about to embark on the chance to expand and finish my dreams in music as well as use my success to create other positive influences. Here I am 4 years later, and ready to take my music to the next level.
show more...
