http://www.dannyfernandes.com/
http://twitter.com/DannyFernandes

“I sleep, eat and breathe music from when I wake up until I go to bed.” Danny Fernandes

Don't believe the hype…Stars aren't born…they're self-made, assembled from skills, drive and heart. These are the building blocks that launched the steady rise of Danny Fernandes, R&B's newest northern light. In two short years Danny has catapulted to stardom. His first two singles “Private Dancer” and “Fantasy” have both gone gold and blown up the airwaves. Along with his hit singles, Danny released three back-to-back #1 videos this year, which earned him 5 nominations at the 2009 MuchMusic Video Awards. Danny took home Best Pop Video Of The Year for “Private Dancer” at this year’s MMVAs and also walked away as the Best Male Artist of the Year at the 2009 Top Choice Awards. After relentlessly touring this year with some of the biggest acts in the industry including Akon, Flo Rida, Sean Kinston and Girlicious, Danny Fernandes has become not only one of the hardest working artists, but also one of the top live acts in the country. Never resting, Danny still finds time to travel across Canada to meet his fans as a one of the judges on YTV’s Karaoke Star Junior, evaluating the nations best young talent.

Of course, it helps to be part of a constellation. That's why 23-year-old Fernandes, born September 16th 1985, joined forces with Canada's hottest independent label, CP Records, home of Belly, Massari, & Ivana Santilli. "This kid is a triple threat. He's headed to the top," boasts Belly, who recruited the young singer/songwriter/dancer into his revolutionary army invading Canada's airwaves. The pair led the charge with Fernandes' synth-fuelled club smash "Private Dancer". Intro might be Danny Fernandes' first album, but he’s been working his way up since he was knee-high. Born the middle child in a musical Italian/Portuguese family with a grandfather that was an opera singer and an older brother that was already a pop star (Shawn Desman), Danny naturally gravitated to music but favoured dance to keep out of the shadows. Dancing since the age of six, Danny doesn’t think he can dance, he knows it. He proved a quick study with an ambitious streak. By eleven he had an agent and was dancing in commercials. By 16 he was practically drowning in gold medals, even netting two consecutive (and aptly-named) Rising Star awards in the annual CNE dance battle. At the same time, he blew away thousands of competitors to become the youngest member of the Toronto Raptor's famed Dance Pak and started appearing regularly as a backup dancer in music videos. "A lot of parents don't support that as much as they would a doctor, a dentist or lawyer," Danny recalls. "When I told my parents, they said let's do it, you got to work.” Soon after, he hit the road with the likes of Aaron Carter, Blackstreet, Deborah Cox and, of course, his brother Shawn, with whom he toured the world for an entire year, even playing the NBA All-Star game in Atlanta.

 

Emerging Canadian R&B/hip-hop star Jordan Croucher is making up for a late start in his music career in a big way with the soulful songs from his forthcoming second album.

Croucher grew up in Halifax and Toronto and, even though it was evident that the youngster had an excellent voice, music took a back seat to basketball in high school and at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia — which led to a year playing professionally in France.

Croucher elected to give up on his hoop dreams and re-immersed himself in music by working with Halifax producer Trobiz and recording mix tapes with the groups N.E.P. and Triple Threat. He eventually hooked up with multi-Juno Award-nominated artist/producer Classified (Luke Boyd), who produced Croucher’s 2007 debut album, No Dress Code.

The 13-track record spawned the hit singles and videos “Selfish Times,” “Feelin’ Fine,” “So Addicted,” “Won’t Let Go” and “It’s Raining.” It also earned Croucher a CBC Galaxie Rising Star prize, an East Coast Music Award nomination and an appearance on the CBC Television special, Barenaked East Coast Music. He toured across Canada with the likes of Maestro and opened for such international stars as Ne-Yo, Snoop Dogg, Rihanna, Nas and Juelz Santana.

With Croucher’s undeniable talents as a singer and lyricist, his good looks and solid citizenry, it should be no surprise that he’s now poised to take the next step up the music ladder using the name JRDN. He’s been working with Toronto’s Grammy Award-nominated Kuya Productions songwriting and production team, who’ve worked with some of the biggest names in the business, including Nelly, Mase, Ginuwine, Jesse McCartney, Nicole Scherzinger and Akon.

Alyssa Reid http://alyssareid.com/

In many ways Alyssa Reid is like any red blooded 18 year ‐old Canadian teenager. She recently graduated from her Brampton Ontario high school where she was a dedicated player on the girl’s rugby team (much to her music label’s chagrin) and until recently she poured coffee part time at a local Tim Hortons to scrape together enough cash to buy her first car. The Edmonton Alberta native’s life however has been anything but conventional. With her family frequently picking up and moving around Alberta and ultimately migrating to Ontario, Alyssa has found herself having to repeatedly adapt to her new surroundings. Being frequently uprooted and forced to regularly make new friends, adapt to new schools and adjust to new teachers, finding a sense of stability was difficult for Alyssa growing up. Through it all, her music has been a constant source that she could rely on to see her through the rough patches.

The thing that sets Alyssa Reid apart is her relentless pursuit of her muse. “Music is my entire world” she admits, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do with my life”. From as far back as her memory serves, Alyssa has been writing and singing, she wrote her first song at the age of 7 and at the age of 9 started taking vocal lessons. From this early age she has continued to work long and hard to develop her incredibly powerful voice into what has today become a singular vocal style. The self ‐taught musician writes on the guitar and piano both of which she’s skillfully mastered over the past few years. This pursuit of her craft has taken her down a long and winding path from winning scholarships at Performing Arts schools in LA and NY, to an eclectic list of gigs that include everything from a performance at the Miss Drag Queen International pageant, to a boxing match, to a performance on a cruise ship, a stint on a nationally televised talent competition, a half time performance at the Mississauga Ice Dogs and hundreds of other various and sundry performances, all of which were grist for the mill in her quest to perfect her talent. From the very beginning Alyssa’s drive to take every possible opportunity to hone her writing, playing and singing chops has seasoned this 17 year ‐old songstress well beyond her years and prepared her to step out onto the main stage.

In the fall of 2009, in a somewhat ironic twist of fate Alyssa was discovered by her record label through a Youtube performance that she posted of her own interpretation of the Justin Bieber hit “One Less Lonely Girl”, written from a girls perspective and re ‐titled “One More Lonely Boy”. This cleverly reworked song had already attracted over 200,000 Youtube hits and resulted in her signing with Wax Records. As has been highly touted in the media, Justin Beiber himself was also discovered via Youtube.

Working with a varied collection of producers; Dave Thomson (Lights), Da Heala (Massari, Belly, Danny Fernandes), Jeff “Diesel” Dalziel (Edwin, Melissa O’Neil) and Jamie Appleby (Jesse Labelle), Alyssa has been busy putting the finishing touches on a dozen self ‐penned sides and collaborations for her forthcoming album entitled ‘The Game’ due out on June 21st. The songs on the album run the gambit from club raves to R&B inflected joints and soulful ballads each of which stand on their own as bold individual statements and together, as a testimony of who Alyssa Reid is as an artist.

The lead off single “Alone Again” co ‐written by Alyssa, is a fresh take on the 1987 #1 hit single “Alone” by female rockers Heart. The newly interpreted song has instantly connected with listeners across Canada as witnessed by the meteoric rise up the Canadian airplay and singles sales charts. The song has muscled it’s way into the Top 5 at pop radio and produced a #1 video on MuchMusic, making Alyssa Reid the top spun Canadian artist in the country and placing her in the same company with top selling international acts, Lady Gaga, JLo and Britney. Over the past six months the platinum selling single has catapulted Alyssa Reid into the musical spotlight, placing her at the top of Billboard’s “Emerging Artists” chart for an astounding 18 consecutive weeks, garnered a “MuchMusic Video Award” nomination for “Best Pop Video” and attracted press coverage from coast to coast.

The follow up single and title track, “The Game” is a rebuttal to “Alone Again”. Both singles are connected by a similar musical and lyrical reference point but are opposite sides of the same coin. Where “Alone Again” explores emotional vulnerability “The Game” is a celebration of individuality and self ‐confidence, boldly asserting; “everyone who knows me, knows that I stand alone, it’s all part of the game”.

In the self ‐penned “Burned” Alyssa bares her soul in an intimate portrayal of a relationship betrayed. The sparse performance sounds as if it was being played as personal catharsis for the performer herself rather than for an audience and shows an astonishing maturity that belies the artist’s seemingly young age.

The high ‐energy club beats of “XO” and soaring balladry of “Talk Me Down” along with the rest of the tracks on the album, show the diversity, depth and breadth of Alyssa’s talent. Based on the strength of this first outing by the 18 year ‐old artist, it’s plain to see that Alyssa Reid is fast becoming a musical force to be reckoned with.