Shakura S’Aida

www.shakurasaida.com

Calling both Switzerland and Canada home since leaving the United States when she was eight years old, Shakura S’Aida has enriched the Canadian music scene. For the past 20 years her soulful voice, enthusiastic personality and commitment to music as an art form has won fans everywhere. Whether speaking Swiss-German, French or English, S’Aida connects to her audience in a way that is ‘simply dazzling.’ As a solo artist, S’Aida’s career has spanned genres and countries and taken her to some of the most noted stages in the world, including the Apollo Theatre in New York. S’Aida has been nominated three times by the Toronto Blues Society as the Maple Blues ‘Female Vocalist of the Year’ (2004/2005/2008) and was also nominated as ‘Entertainer of the Year’ in 2008. S’Aida has worked with such artists as Jimmy Smith, Ruth Brown, Patti Labelle and Rita MacNeil, and is equally at home singing material with a Ray Charles tribute band, or presenting a one-woman show of the music of Nina Simone. She is a guest vocalist on Bill King and Saturday Night Fish Fry’s Rhythm and Soul and the group’s new CD Dirt Road Blues. The release of her debut blues album Blueprint earned strong critical applause. The 11-track CD takes listeners on a journey through the blues of the 1940s and 1950s and is infused with S’Aida's signature voice and sultry interpretation of the music.