SanGia

SanGia consists of Genia and SandraMelbourne from Guelph, Ontario Canada.Our Soul Rock repertoire is written and producedby our father (Howard) Sandra, Genia and othercollaboration such as Dan Hill, Dave Martin andJohn Capek. From the day we were born wewere always on the road living in the hotels andresorts that our parents were performing in.Being musician’s kids, you’d be lucky if you canhold on to a childhood friend since you wereconstantly traveling. But our parents took care ofthat by keeping us busy with schoolwork, musiclessons, and karate in which we are both blackbelts, and have won many trophies atcompetitions. During the mid ‘90s our parentsunder the band name, M2P, were signed to are­cording contract, playing steady gigs andlighting up the dance charts with hits such as“Before The Next Teardrop Falls”, “Do Ya LoveMe” and “Just The way you Like It.” “Do YouLove Me” was also in Rodney Dangerfield’s latestmovie “My Five wives”. While watching from theside of the stage as our parents performed, wedeveloped a genuine love for music and a strongdesire to follow in their footsteps. At the age of4, Genia began studying the violin while Sandrastarted to sing. Later on we began performingsolos at festivals. By the age of seven Geniabecame one of the youngest members to join hertown’s youth orchestra. We made a lot ofsacrifices in order to achieve our musical dream,including not being able to hang with friends likenormal kids. Even though we were in the publicschool system for a while, we werehome-schooled all year round. There was nospace in our lives for relationships, and we spenthours each day rehearsing our act, with musicbeing our only focus, aside from our academicgoals. At the ages of 11 and 12 our musical careerhad officially begun. In Oct. 1999, British-basedPeace Child International selected us to attend theMillennium Young People's Congress in Hawaiialong with 1,000 other international delegates.During the event, televised internationally by theMillennium Television Network, we performedour award-winning song “Where Has It Gone.”Following this, we were finalist in the WaltDisney Millennium Dreamers Contest and wewere awarded a trip to Disney World in Orlando,Florida along with 2,000 other internationalwinners. This achievement coincided with makingit to the semifinals for a Youth Television (YTV)Achievement Award that honors achievementsand talents of Canadians. One year into our musiccareer, we received interest from Major recordlabels and eventually we became the firstunsigned band to perform at the 2000 JunoAwards at the ages of 12 and 13. Shortly after,we signed a development deal with EMI, and ourparents thought it would be best to home-schoolus from grade 8 and all through secondary schoolin order for us to have more time to perfect ouract. During this time we entered contests andperformed wherever we could. Such as SeniorCenters, benefit concerts, schools, The GuelphArts Festival where one year our performancewas aired on Rogers Television in Kitchener, theGuelph Dance Festival, the CH TV Mother’s DayTelethon, London Ontario’s Black History MonthConcert, the Children’s Milk Festival at theHarbour Front in Toronto etc. Towards the endof our secondary years of education, our focusturned completely to an academic career, as ourmusical goals were placed on the back burner,putting the vision of a 9 to 5 job in its place.During our search for a non-music relatedprofession, we realized that music was our core.Our hearts were not willing to accept any otheroccupation without music accompanying us andwe started our training once again. With ourparents also being a cover band, singing aplethora of genres from jazz to rock to R&B, wetoo have inherited the love for all genres. Thisfact is showcased in our music. We believe thatall ages should be able to enjoy music, and thatparents should not have to worry about whattheir children are listening to. Apart from usfocusing on our musical career, we feel it’s ashame that so many schools have taken out theirmusic programs. We enjoy giving people wholove to sing, an opportunity to record theirmusic, and then provide a venue for them toperform. By doing this, we feel great knowingthat we are helping others fulfill their musicaldreams.

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