A woman went from singing in front of her classmates to non-stop gigs in a new city.
Danelia Calles, 23, from the city centre, loved music from a young age and soon decided it was what she wanted to do as a career. Speaking to the ECHO, Danelia said: “I've always loved singing.
“Since I was little, I even remember showing up to my first year class and we had to pick a profession. I chose to be a singer because I just loved it and I even performed in front of my classmates when I was about six, seven years old.
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“I never really thought of it as a career until I think I was around like 11, 12. I watched the movie Burlesque that features Christina Aguilera and Cher.
“I remember just seeing both of them perform with their amazing voices, all these costumes and dancing and everything, and I just thought, that's what I want to do.”
Danelia grew up in Mexico. Keen to take the next step in her musical career, she browsed specialist music colleges and one place in Liverpool caught her eye. She said: “To be honest, I hadn't heard much about Liverpool.
“I think it was just mainly because I had found LIPA and I had this amazing opportunity of going to this university with such a prestigious name and being surrounded by all these really talented people, it was really just a no brainer.”
Danelia began her studies in music at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts in 2019, and quickly fell in love with the city too. She said: “Once I arrived here, I realised why LIPA is here, why it makes sense, because Liverpool is such an important city for music and art.
“Everywhere there's gigs and people who do what I do and it's great because you get inspired by them every single day. I think it's the perfect city to develop a career.”
Danelia started gigging shortly after the covid lockdown and “hasn’t stopped since”. She has also released three singles in the past two years.
She said: “I think being surrounded by so many talented people and people from LIPA that know what they're doing in production and marketing, it's made it very easy and definitely very exciting.
“I was a bit nervous about my first release, but it went really well. It's nice to kind of just be able to have something out there that other people can relate to. It's been a bit of a slow process, recording and releasing, but it's all in due time.”
Feeling increasingly confident, Danelia recently entered Battle of the Bands, a competition run by Arts Bar Hope Street to showcase grassroots musicians in Merseyside with a prize of £1,000 for the winner. She said: “I've had a few gigs at the Arts Bar and it's a place where I've hung out so many times.
“I thought I'd give it a shot because, you know, the price is a grand, it's always good to have a grand."
Danelia also believed, no matter the result, any publicity for herself and other band members would be beneficial. She brought in her long-term band members Kelly Louise, Meg Shaw and Ari Levantino.
She had to borrow guitarist Ben and drummer Guirkat from other bands. She said: “I've had the same band for about three years, but in the past year, they've all gotten a little bit busier.”
“I've known them as friends for a while. I was very glad that they could jump on it very quickly, learn the songs and have fun with us. It was very easy, they were really hard working.”
The grand final took place two weeks ago, and Danelia was apprehensive before her performance. She said: “I was very nervous because I knew I was going up against two very talented girls.
“When I got to the venue, there were a lot of people, it was a big crowd, big audience. But I was very excited for the set and I was very happy that I'd gotten as far as I'd gotten.”
Despite her modest expectations, Danelia and her band were crowned the winners of the competition. She was “shocked” when the results were announced.
Despite some people advising her otherwise, Danelia feels she has taken a sensible approach to the prize money. She said: “Obviously, we divided it between the band members, because otherwise I wouldn't have gotten where I did without them.”
On what she is doing with her share, she said: “It's definitely going to my savings account for my career. If I need to pay for any recording, touring or anything, that's what it's going be for, even though people want me to spend it on myself.”
Daneila is recording her debut EP and has another project in the works after that is done. You can find out more about her music here.
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