Mary Lu Zahalan is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 singer and actress.

Born in Renfrew, Ontario

Renfrew, Ontario

Renfrew, Ontario, Canada, is a town on the Bonnechere River in Renfrew County. Located one hour west of Ottawa in Eastern Ontario, Renfrew is the third largest town in the county after Petawawa and Pembroke. The town is a small transportation hub connecting Ontario Highway 60 and Highway 132 with...

 and raised in Oakville

Oakville, Ontario

Oakville is a town in Halton Region, on Lake Ontario in Southern Ontario, Canada, and is part of the Greater Toronto Area. As of the 2006 census the population was 165,613.-History:In 1793, Dundas Street was surveyed for a military road...

, Zahalan was a Miss Canada

Miss Canada

Miss Canada was a scholarship competition for young women in Canada. It was founded in Hamilton in 1946. The first broadcast of the Miss Canada pageant aired in 1963 on CTV. The late Peter Jennings was host of the pageant in 1964....

 finalist in 1976 before embarking on a career as an entertainer. She was a performing arts teacher at Oakville's Sheridan College

Sheridan College

Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning is a diploma and degree granting Canadian polytechnic institute with approximately 15,000 full time students and 35,000 continuing education students...

.

She received a nomination for a Juno Award in 1983

Juno Awards of 1983

The Juno Awards of 1983, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 5 April 1983 in Toronto at a ceremony hosted by Burton Cummings and Alan Thicke at the Harbour Castle Hilton Metropolitan Ballroom....

 as Most Promising Female Vocalist. In 1990, she released the album Zahalan.

In January 2011, Zahalan graduated from Liverpool Hope University

Liverpool Hope University

Liverpool Hope University is a university in Liverpool, England. Two of its three founding colleges were established in 1844 and 1856, the third opening in the 1960s. It is the only ecumenical university in Europe. Based on two campuses, the main campus is located in Childwall and the second...

 with a masters degree in a program that studied The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

. She was the first graduate of the program.