Toronto singer Melanie Fiona builds The Bridge between Canada and our neighbours to the south

Melanie Fiona is part of the burgeoning Toronto music scene that is set to surf a tidal wave of international success. The singer, whose single “Give It to Me Right” hit number 22 on the Billboard R&B charts, has recently enjoyed a ton of exposure and glowing press. A child of Guyanese immigrants, Fiona embodies Canada’s spirit of multiculturalism. She is fiercely proud of her nationality, and uncompromising in her aim to deliver ground-breaking soul/pop music with influences drawn from all across the world.

“I’m not an American artist, I’m not a black American artist,” Fiona told Naked Eye. “I’m mixed – I’m West Indian and I’m Canadian – so I need to make music that’s me, rather than try to fit into a culture that’s really not me. I’ve decided to have my music reflect that, so my music is diverse, it’s multicultural, it’s all of these things.”

 Her sound is a fusion of different genres – everything from R&B to reggae, from new school hip hop to ’60s pop. Her confident attitude and refusal to become just another manufactured R&B singer is part of the reason why her new album, The Bridge, has generated so much hype. While she may have found success in the American market, she is not about to let herself be washed away in a sea of pop singers.

“I’m a firm believer that nothing happens before its time and I just think it’s time for Canada. I think we’ve learned, we’ve watched, we’ve seen the market in the States, we’ve seen our market in Canada, and now there’s artists stepping up and saying, ‘I don’t want it to be like this anymore, I want Canada to have its own place in the music world.’ And I’m very happy to be a part of that movement.”

The other key player in “that movement” is Melanie’s long-time friend and collaborator. Before Drake had become the megastar that he is today, Melanie and the Degrassi-actor-turned-hip-hop-icon played together in a band called Renaissance. They performed weekly at small Toronto clubs, freestyling and collaborating with creative local musicians. It was during this time that she met her executive producer. Before long she had built up enough buzz to ink a deal with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label and to snag the opening slot for Kanye West on a major North American tour. As her career started heating up, she and Drake stopped performing together, only to then be reunited on the other side of the border after they had both made it big.

“The fact that Kanye has taken interest in Canada,” says Melanie, “has helped spread the word, and I think there is a stigma that’s going to broken now about what Canada has to offer.”