MAKEIDA A biography of the music life of Makeida Ezekiel
Makeida’s Biography Makeida Ezekiel (born October 16th 1986), better known by her first name Makeida, is a British born R&B singer/songwriter from Hackney, East London. Makeida’s unique mix comes from her Greek and Nigerian heritage.
Caption: Makeida
Early Life Makeida is the 7
th
child born, of 12 children from her mother and father. Raised in East London,
Makeida Ezekiel used music as a way of expression and to gain uniqueness amongst her brothers and sisters;
Caption: Younger Makeida
Right Image: Caption: Makeida with (9 out of 12 of her brothers and sisters)
Music Career Makeida fell in love with music instantly after hearing the likes of Mariah Carey and Michael Jackson. Makeida was 7 years old when she first sang on stage in front of a primary school audience, but it was at secondary school that Makeida’s talent and passion for music really came to light. Throughout Makeida’s teenage years, Makeida gigged at local showcases and entered competitions; including winning a handful including; earning the title “Young singer of the year” award put on by popular local newspaper the Hackney Gazette. The competitions, showcases and local wins drove a lot of awareness for young Makeida, but not enough for Makeida’s parents to grant Makeida full access until her education was complete, due to their “Education First” rule. In 2000, Makeida won a UK Nationwide college talent show featuring unsigned talent from around the country, but tragedy set Makeida back following the sudden passing of her mother Androulla Ezekiel.
Caption: Makeida’s Mother Androulla Ezekiel (RIP)
Makeida’s mother passing away was huge hurdle for Makeida and her first reaction was to never sing again. But sadness couldn’t keep Makeida from singing as it was the only thing that gave her hope. “Never give up on your music dreams and goals…” Makeida says that her mother’s wishes have been the strength and source of her determination. Makeida continued to sing at university and wrote several songs, but never sang on stage until she was completely at peace, following the loss of her mother.
Career Beginning One day a friend told Makeida about MySpace and whilst, she was still discouraged, she decided to upload a few songs. To Makeida’s surprise her song “Never” (the first song Makeida wrote and sang after losing her mother) was uploaded onto Social Network site and stormed its way up to no. 5 of the MySpace charts. Makeida’s MySpace popularity encouraged Makeida to upload more music and images and it was almost as though, every song she uploaded, or every image Makeida uploaded was gobbled up and embraced by Makeida’s new found online fans. By 2009, Makeida was a permanent feature on the MySpace charts and Makeida earned over 7 million profile views and 27,000 Fans across the digital world. Through MySpace, Makeida met several top producers who poured in beats from around the world, and promoters began contacting Makeida for gigs (concerts and showcases). People often searched “Makeida MySpace” on Google.
Caption: Picture of Makeida made famous from the UK to USA via MySpace.
In 2004, Makeida joined famous British Gospel Choir (LCGC) and as a result provided professional backing vocals for the likes of Westlife and many more.
And then there was Facebook… Not knowing much about Facebook, Makeida created a friend profile account to promote more of her music and to network with other producers and artists online. Unaware of how popular she would be, within 3 months Makeida had hit Facebook’s maximum friend limit of 5,000 friends, so Makeida opened another Facebook friend account and within 6 months Makeida had hit the 5,000 friends limit once again and had over 5,700 friend request’s pending across both of her accounts – until she finally created a fan page, which today now has 33,000 fans and counting… [http://www.facebook.com/makeidamusic]
And then there was Twitter… Through honest tweets about Makeida’s passions, up’s and downs, disappointments and joys, fans grew to enjoy and love Makeida’s music, honesty and encouraging quotes and humour like tweets. This approach worked for Makeida who today has over 170,000 followers on Twitter. http://www.twitter.com/makeida Thus far, Makeida has supported and performed in concert with/alongside; the likes of T-Pain, Akon, TI, Neyo, Dru Hill, Keisha Cole, Sway, Chipmunk, Flo-Rida among many others. She has also provided professional backing vocals for a host of artists including; Westlife, R Kelly, Groove Armada, Madonna and Stevie Wonder to name a few.
And then there was YouTube… In May 2010, Makeida launched her debut music video; Sugar Love, which was independently released and self- funded by Makeida who also wrote and co-produced the song and co-directed the music video.
Music Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJ0Bp12yBQQ It took 1 year for Makeida to gain 1 Million Views without the video being on TV, and today in the first 9 months of 2012 – Makeida’s video Sugar Love has over 2.4 million views an extra 1.4 million this year alone and goes up 100,000 views a week. As a hard working unsigned singer, Makeida Ezekiel was reluctant to go to record labels; due to the fear of rejection so instead did everything herself with her online fans from around the world.
Makeida ..Has never approached a record label to date, but the World is calling for her discovery and it won’t be long before that is done.
Official Website Links:
http://www.facebook.com/makeidamusic
http://www.Twitter.com/Makeida
http://www.Youtube.com/Makeida2
http://www.StarNow.com/makeidaezekiel
http://www.MySpace.com/Makeida1
http://www.myspace.com/makeidaworld
Contact: Makeidamusic@gmail.com Mobile: 07930 324 643 or/ 07944 058 495 or/ 0207 193 1516