Women's Blues Revue 2003 - Featured Vocalists

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One of the top six competitors on Canadian Idol, Ajax, Ontario native, Toya Alexis has been singing since she was nine years old and has sung the Canadian and American national anthems at Skydome. She has also performed at the legendary Apollo theatre in New York.

Cindy Church

Originally from Bible Hill, Nova Scotia, Cindy spent her formative musical years in western Canada, making her first recordings with the Great Western Orchestra, touring and recording with Ian Tyson and embarking on a solo career. Her three solo albums (Love on the Range, Just a Little Rain and Cindy Church) all include some of her own songs and her friendship with Sylvia Tyson helped lead to the formation of Quartette, with Sylvia, Caitlin Hanford, the late Colleen Peterson and later Gwen Swick. A superb singer with a distinctive voice and a technique she uses only to illuminate the lyric, Cindy invests the songs she performs with warmth, charm and feeling.

Now living in Toronto, she has not only acquired a national reputation as one of the best singers in the country, but an international one as well. She is currently touring with her latest project, "The Nearness of You - a Tribute to the Music of Hoagy Carmichael” along with pianist/composer, Joe Sealey and bassist George Koller. She is also at work on her fourth album due to be released in the spring.

Cindy has been nominated for Juno Awards on two occasions and has also been nominated for awards by the Canadian Country Music Association.

Amoy Levy

At the tender age of 6, Amoy discovered the vocal gift she was blessed with and aspired to one day share it with the world. Starting within the gospel community Amoy received her music development while singing with several groups, soloists and choirs until she became the Choir Director for the Toronto based Youth Outreach Mass Choir. After 7 years of hard work the choir was nominated for both a Juno and Urban Music award in 1998 for their Debut Album 'Just Look'. 

Touring within Canada and the United States Amoy performed with artists such as Celine Dion, Michael Bolton, P 'Diddy', Molly Johnson, Snow, Michelle Wright, Billy Ray Cyrus, Fred Hammond, Hezekiah Walker, Kirk Franklin and is currently a background vocalist world-renowned Tom Cochrane.

Elaine Overholt

Elaine Overholt is one of North America's most respected and treasured voice teachers and coaches. With a lifetime of classical training in both piano and voice, she attended Western University where her passion for the voice became unstoppable as she worked under international opera coaches, and graduated with an honours degree in Voice Performance.

At the same time, Elaine grew up playing and singing gospel music. She was the church organist at 11, and the choir director at 14 and believes it was this experience that taught her to open up her heart. She teaches intensive vocal technique and is masterful in preparing singers for powerful song performance - in EVERY genre of music.

Having performed as a soloist on world stages, network television, albums, films and thousands of jingles, Elaine has also recorded or performed with hundreds of artists, including the likes of Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Anne Murray and Dionne Warwick.

Elaine has enjoyed voice coaching for Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renee Zellweger, Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Mya and Christine Baranski on "Chicago" - the movie; Alannah Myles, Triumph, Sharon, Lois & Bram; Edwin; and the hit TV show "Popstars"; and has trained singers for leading roles on Broadway ("Rent", "Mamma Mia", "The Producers"). Record labels (Universal, EMI, Sony, Virgin) send their artists to Elaine where they learn to protect their voices, warm up and develop stamina and style. In studio sessions, she has worked alongside many well-known producers who have learned to trust her ability to coax "magical" performances from recording artists. 

Roxanne Potvin

Roxanne Potvin is Ottawa's newest blues voice. She has been described as 'powerful, sweet and sultry, all in one', and - influenced by Dinah Washington - is equally talented singing blues, gospel or jazz. At just 20 years old, Roxanne is another of Ottawa's talented young guitarists. A finalist in last year's Blues Guitar Riff-Off, her influences range from Jr. Watson and T-Bone Walker to Little Charlie Baty and Rusty Zinn. Her guitar work is versatile and tasteful; she plays everything from west coast swing to Chicago blues and covers lots of ground in between. 

Shakura S'Aida

Juno nominated blues diva Shakura S'Aida has been professionally involved with the Toronto music community for almost 20 years. Drawing on her strong roots in gospel music, Shakura was the lead singer of the popular 13-piece world music ensemble Kaleefah, before breaking out on her own solo career.

Her transition to blues, richly laden with jazz and R&B influences, was an easy one for this dynamic performer. Her sultry voice has won her many prized performance opportunities ranging from concerts at the famed Apollo Theatre in New York, to singing back-up vocals for Rita MacNeil and the legendary Patti Labelle, as well as featured performances with jazz legends like Jimmy Smith and Ruth Brown. Most recently Shakura has enjoyed working with Bill King and the Saturday Night Fish Fry.

Shakura can currently be seen performing her unique brand of blues, alongside bassist Eric Soostar and guitarist Brooke Blackburn, in a variety of Toronto venues, including the newly renovated and spectacular Carlu Event Theatre.

Almeta Speaks

Almeta Speaks exemplifies the philosophy that one should live and experience life to the fullest. She is vehement in stating that every life experience, talent and skill impinge on each other, giving an individual a strong base for optimum growth.

Speaks is a multitalented speaker, teacher, researcher, composer, and artist . She has won two Emmy Awards and is a respected television and radio producer both in Canada and the US.

She left her home in Reidsville, North Carolina, where she sang gospel from the age of 13, to sing in New York City. It was there that Speaks began to develop her unique musical style and to seek out role models of major statute. Performers like Carmen McRae, Dinah Washington, Edith Piaf, Barbara Streisand, and Bobby Short. She learned from them to always seek excellence in performance. That selection of a repertoire should include songs of beauty, hope and truth. And that these would transcend any room to the level of a concert stage. In the 70`s she was offered a two week engagement at Toronto`s George`s Spaghetti House. Eleven months later she had garnered a large Toronto following and fallen in love with Canada. 

To address the notable lack of Black cultural programming on the local PBS station, and with very little experience in broadcasting, she created, produced, and hosted Almeta Speaks With:. this was a community and cultural affairs program featuring national and international figures, as well as audience panels on social issues. Speaks won two Emmy Awards for this series.