BESHARA

the first time i got onto a stage to sing, i was eleven and that first taste was when the bug bit! I started singing with my family at an early stage and when i was 16, we went into the studio to record and then went on tour to sweden, norway, denmark, finland, poland, italy and the USA. We travelled singing for 4 months and then i came home to complete my schooling. While in senior high school, my brother and i started a band called 'free'. We made a recording and toured around south africa. It was a great band and it was a wonderful learning curve for me. I won a competition called 'the stairway to the stars' through the hard rock cafe and with the money, made my first CD.After school, i left SA and went to the US where I toured with my father for 6 weeks and then stayed for a year and worked with kids in the inner city in tampa.When i got home, i worked in johannesburg for 6 months and then went home to Cape Town where i recorded an album with my brother and then toured with my family to Australia. Daniel (my brother) and i came home and started our band... 'Naked Lyric'. We had that band for 7 years and in that time, we had a lot of success as an indipendent band. We had a few songs on rotation on the national secular radio station, one on the South African top 40 and we were nominated for a South African music award. We toured around South Africa, up to Zimbabwe and to the the UK to do summer festivals and all in all, recorded three CD's. The biggest success though is that many young and older people gave their lives to Jesus through the ministry of our band and God used us to touch and change lives and for that, Naked Lyric will always be a very precious part of my life. I loved the band so much and it was a very sad thing when we broke up but i guess it was a season and a great one at that.I worked in the Fashion industry for 2 years but it was not fulfilling as all i wanted to do was sing. I was offered an opportunity to go to the middle east to do a contract at a 5 star hotel in Muscat. I did three contracts in the middle east, Muscat, Bahrain and Jordan and it was a good experience and it was good to sing but i was doing covers and it wasn't great. I didn't feel like it was helping or changing anyone's life and all it was, was a paycheck. I finished my contract in Jordan and went back to Cape Town where i recorded a very quick, simple demo using great songs that Ashton Gardner, Carol Blake and I wrote... i am hoping to record this year and bring out something i am proud of again...I am back in cape town after some tough years and I look forward to this new season of my life and believe it is going to be an awesome one...