Etana (musician)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Etana at the Ruhr Reggae Summer 2014
Etana at the Uppsala Reggae Festival (2009)

Etana (* around 1983 in August Town , Jamaica ; as Shauna McKenzie ) is a Jamaican songwriter and reggae - singer .

life and career

Shauna McKenzie spent the first years of her life in Jamaica. She attended school there until 1992 when she and her family moved to Miami , Florida, at the age of nine . There she continued school and later attended Broward Community College. She became the mother of a son as a young woman and initially planned to become a nurse.

In 2002 she became a member of the girl group Gift . However, she was unsatisfied with how she should be marketed and dropped out of the girl trio early. She wanted to turn her back on the music business and returned to Jamaica to open an internet café in Kingston . In 2005, through friends, she met employees of Fifth Element Records who were looking for a background singer for Richie Spice . Etana was initially only engaged for one concert in California, from which a 15-month international tour developed , on which she accompanied Richie Spice as a background singer.

Etana did not stay in the background for long, soon she was recording her solo debut single Wrong Address accompanied by musicians from Richie Spice's backing band . The single was a 2006 hit on Jamaican radio and made her known as a newcomer. In 2007 another song followed, Roots , this time also successful in the international reggae charts. When recording her debut album The Strong One , she worked with Sly Dunbar , Dean Fraser , Robbie Lyn , Dalton Browne and others. The album was released on VP Records in June 2008 and made it to number 12 on the Billboard Reggae Album Charts. It was named Album of the Year at the International Reggae and World Music Awards (IRAWMA) in New York and won the Excellence in Music and Entertainment Awards (EME) in Kingston. In the same year Etana also received a nomination in the category Best New Reggae Artist at the MOBO Awards in London.

In 2011 her second album Free Expressions was released .

In 2012 she became the mother of a daughter.

Discography (selection)

  • The Strong One (2008, VP Records )
  • Free Expressions (2011, VP Records)
  • Better Tomorrow (2013, VP Records)
  • I Rise (2014)
  • Reggae Forever (2018)

Web links

Commons : Etana  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography at VP Records. Retrieved July 13, 2011.
  2. ↑ Etana unveils 'A Better Tomorrow' at Jazz , Jamaica Gleaner, January 26, 2013. Retrieved January 26, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Etana
ALTERNATIVE NAMES McKenzie, Shauna (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Jamaican songwriter and reggae singer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1983
PLACE OF BIRTH August Town , Jamaica