Shakura S'Aida is a Canadian blues vocalist, songwriter and

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

. She is sometimes credited Shakura.

History

Shakura S'Aida was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

and lived in Switzerland before moving to Canada. S'Aida was lead singer of the 13-piece world music ensemble Kaleefah, before embarking on her solo career. She has also performed as a backing vocalist for Rita MacNeil and

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman. LaBelle is referred to as the " Godmother of Soul". She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singe ...

, as well as with jazz musicians such as Jimmy Smith and

Ruth Brown Ruth Alston Brown (; January 12, 1928 – November 17, 2006) was an American singer-songwriter and actress, sometimes referred to as the " Queen of R&B". She was noted for bringing a pop music style to R&B music in a series of hit songs for At ...

. She has also been nominated for several

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...

s for her music. S'Aida independently released her first solo album, ''Blueprint'', in 2008. Her second album, ''Brown Sugar'', was released in 2010 on Ruf Records. In 2012, she released a double CD, ''Time'', on Electro-Fi Records. As an actress, she starred in a

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most pop ...

production of George Boyd's ''Consecrated Ground'' in 2004, as well as Sudz Sutherland's '' Doomstown'' in 2006 and Sharon Lewis's film '' Brown Girl Begins'' in 2018. In 2013, she was nominated for a

Blues Music Award The Blues Music Awards, formerly known as the W. C. Handy Awards (or "The Handys"), are awards presented by the Blues Foundation, a non-profit organization set up to foster blues heritage. The awards were originally named in honor of W. C. Handy ...

in the 'Contemporary Blues Female Artist' category.

Discography

*''Time'' (2012, Electro-Fi) *''Brown Sugar'' (2010, Ruf) *''Blueprint'' (2008, independent)

Filmography

Film

Television

Theatre

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Shakura S'aida
on

IMDb IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, p ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:S'Aida, Shakura Actresses from Toronto Black Canadian actresses 21st-century Black Canadian women singers Canadian blues singers Canadian stage actresses Canadian television actresses Canadian voice actresses Canadian world music musicians Living people Musicians from Toronto Year of birth missing (living people) Ruf Records artists 20th-century Black Canadian women singers