Calais Peterkin, aged 16, has always been interested in music and it has always been a passion and talent of hers. With her parents being Missionaries, from a young age she would sing in Church and would regularly participate in Sunday School Concerts. These allowed her and her other talented friends to get involved with music and really explore what they could do while just having fun with it. Calais always loved her music and said, ‘I would just never stop singing’. Her whole family is musical and ‘My family are like the Von Trapps’ she says, ‘We all can and love to sing. If I’m in one room singing, my brothers will do the harmonies from another, even my Dad can rap!’

 


Up until this point, Calais had thought of singing as just a hobby and something she didn’t really want to pursue as a career and just as something she really enjoyed doing on the side. However, it wasn’t until she moved to Guyana 2 years ago that she realised she might be more interested in it than that.  In Guyana, she accidentally joined a competition without realising what it entailed. The competition turned out to be televised and this media exposure enabled her to develop a fan base which meant she could perform to larger crowds, thousands of people rather than the hundreds she was used to. It turned out that lots of people really enjoyed her music and asked her to record. This was the first step for her, realising that this was something she could really get into.

 


For Calais, music was just one of those things that had always been involved in her life in every aspect. Her brothers can sing, are in bands, and her parents are both musically talented as well. Calais has been writing her own songs since as long as she’s known, and has exercise books full of her own lyrics. Although living in the UK again now, moving to Guyana was very significant for her as it was where she really found herself artistically and collaborated with a band and young musicians.  She would love to record and it’s a big aspiration of hers but at this moment in time, AS-Levels and exams are very much the focus. She says ‘It’s just something I have to do first’. Setting this aside, she has plans to record her music in 2013, so keep an eye and an ear out for this new young girl on the scene!