Etana (musician)
Etana (* around 1983 in August Town, Jamaica, as Shauna McKenzie ) is a Jamaican reggae singer and songwriter.
Life and career
Shauna McKenzie spent the first years of her life in Jamaica. She attended school there until she moved in 1992 at the age of nine with her family to Miami in Florida. There they continued the school and later attended the Broward Community College. It was as a young woman mother of a son and was planning to become a nurse first.
In 2002 she became a member of the girl group poison. However, she was dissatisfied with how they should be marketed and rose early again from the girl trio. She wanted the music business turn their backs and returned to Jamaica back in order to open an Internet Cafe in Kingston. Through friends she met then 2005 Employees of Fifth Element Records know who just wanted a background singer for Richie Spice. Etana was initially engaged on a concert in California, it then developed a 15-month international tour on which she accompanied Richie Spice as a background singer.
Etana did not stay long in the background, they soon took accompanied by musicians from Richie Spice ' backing her solo debut single Wrong Address on. The single was a hit in the 2006 Jamaican radio and introduced them to the newcomer. In 2007 followed with Roots another, this time successful in international reggae charts song. In the recordings of their debut album The Strong One, she has worked with Sly Dunbar, Dean Fraser, Robbie Lyn, Dalton Browne and others. The album was released in June 2008, VP Records and made it to number 12 on the Billboard reggae album charts. It was voted at the International Reggae and World Music Awards ( IRAWMA ) in New York for Album of the Year and won at the Excellence in Music and Entertainment Awards ( EME) in Kingston. That same year, Etana also achieved a nomination in the Best New Reggae Artist category at the MOBO Awards in London.
In 2011 they released their second album Free Expressions.
In 2012, she became the mother of a daughter.
Discography (selection)
- The Strong One (2008, VP Records)
- Free Expressions (2011, VP Records)