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From New York to Texas; Kenya to Milan; Alicia Angel has seen the world, though it was her own personal struggles that made this pop/r&b; singer the "survivor" that she is today.
The youngest of five, Alicia was born in Texas months before her mother ended her abusive marriage to Alicia's father. At the age of 4, Alicia's financially struggling single mother was transferred back to her home state of New Jersey, while working for an Airline. Only Alicia and one brother made the move as the three other siblings were many years their senior and living on their own.
This move proved to be instrumental in Alicia's future career. Alicia's mother was referred to a talent manager and Alicia began auditioning for and booking jobs in print, film, and video. The natural performer in her began to emerge and Alicia discovered her love for music. She spent much of her time singing and daydreaming about performing as a singer and even began to write songs when she learned to read and write. As tension and dysfunction grew in her home, Alicia's songwriting became an outlet. As she grew older, Alicia spent countless hours listening to the radio and vocally emulating artists like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, providing herself with an escape from her troubled home life. She decided to more seriously pursue a career in music and was accepted into a performing arts high school as a vocal major in the inner city of Newark, NJ. There, she was classically trained and learned music theory.
In Pursuit of her dream, Alicia often used her flying privileges to her advantage. While visiting her siblings in Texas, she began writing songs with a friend who lived there. One song they co-wrote and Alicia recorded, entitled, "Angel" later ended up in the hands of Mariah Carey, when Alicia attended her concert in Milan, Italy. Mariah passed the song to her musical director, Randy Jackson. The song also sparked interest from Boys II Men star, Wanya Morris, when she flew to Chicago to sing for him. Still in high school, she'd often miss school, after spending late nights writing and recording more songs in a New York City studio. After graduating, she moved out of the dysfunction that she grew up in and spent years as a working actress to support herself. .
Alicia's songs have become more and more lyrically advanced and much more personal. Now the reality that she used music to escape from has become part of the music itself. Alicia is now involved in V-Day, a global movement to end violence against women and girls that is headed by playwright Eve Ensler. Through V-Day, she visits girls who live in a safe house in Kenya to escape female circumcision and early marriage. Deeply inspired by their stories, Alicia wrote a song for them called, "Beauty You'll Remain," which she hopes will one day raise money and awareness about violence against women and girls. Alicia's lyrics range from ballads like, "Survivor," that tell the story of her own struggle as a child to songs like "Beauty You'll Remain," that witness the pain and suffering of strong, African girls to lighter, catchy uptempo tracks like "Addicted," inspired by her own personal love and heartache.
Alicia plans to continue in her singing/songwriting efforts, creating songs intended for listeners to relate.
"If someone hears one of my songs and recognizes him or herself within my lyrics," Alicia says, "then I know I've done my job as a songwriter."
Though aspiring to one day also write for other artists and expand to other genres, Alicia vows that in the meantime she will write her own songs with the purpose of "motivating, inspiring, raising awareness, and reaching people." She adds, "That's what I feel compelled to do and it's a gift that I can do it through music. I'm really driven."
Driven, she is, and seeking more opportunities to advance her skills and career in singing/songwriting
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