Shakaya
Encyclopedia
Shakaya were a two-piece girl group
from Australia
, that consisted of Simone Stacey
and Naomi Wenitong
, two Cairns, North Queensland
based songwriters and performers. The two met at the Atsic Music College in 1999 while studying an Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander music course and they had both been writing individually before they met each other. The girls were initially discovered in Cairns by Reno Nicastro and Michael Pearson-Adams. Nicastro produced most of the girls' songs and gave them free studio time for two years.
The band's name, 'Shakaya', was originally going to be 'Kashaya', but then their manager mixed the letters around and it became 'Shakaya'. Stacey and Wenitong did some research and found out that the word "shakaya" has a broad range of meanings in a lot of different cultures. The one that really stood out for them was the native Indian meaning of "voices in the wind". Shakaya established the duo as Australia's premier female urban pop act and saw them tour with Destiny's Child
, Usher
, Kylie Minogue
and Ja Rule
.
Naomi is now a member of the hip-hop group The Last Kinection
The girls were in Sydney, Australia in August 2001 and that morning they had a showcase lined up at Sony Music
. It was a small, intimate room where they had to perform and they performed four songs. At the end of it, they walked out of the room and within five minutes Sony Music came back and told them they were signed. On 18 January 2002, the duo released their first and debut song called "Stop Calling Me
". It is a song about stalking situations based on a real-life experience that they and their male and female friends have had. The song entered the charts at number forty-five on 25 February 2002. The song rose up the charts from then on and because of more airplay the song managed to peak into the top ten at number five. It became Shakaya's biggest hit of their career, being certified platinum by ARIA
, becoming the forty-third highest selling single for 2002, and being nominated for the "Highest Selling Single" for the 2002 ARIA Awards. The second song released was "Sublime", released in Australia on 17 May 2002 and became the duo's second top twenty single peaking at number nineteen in June 2002. "Cinderella" was the third and last song released by the duo; it became their third top twenty single, peaking at number sixteen, and it was certified gold by ARIA. Their debut self-titled album Shakaya
was finally released in Australia on 18 October 2002 and was received well, debuting in the charts at number five on 28 October 2002. The album fell to number forty-eight the next week and only spent seven weeks in the top one hundred. On 14 April 2003 the band released a cover version
of the Michael Jackson
hit "The Way You Make Me Feel
"; the girls said it was amazing to cover of one of his songs because he is the King of Pop. The song had a minor success on the charts peaking at number twenty-one and staying in the top fifty for seven weeks.
Are You Ready
was recorded over an eighteen month period in Cairns, Sydney, Australia and the United States
with a range of producers. The first song released from the album was titled "Are You Ready?
" and was released on 10 June 2005; it was written and produced by the MadNotes team (who have previously worked with Alicia Keys
and Justin Timberlake
). The song was promoted well and peaked at number twenty-five on the singles chart
. Five months later, the duo released the second and last song from the album, "We Ain't Goin' Down
", on 13 November 2005, and it was their lowest charting single, peaking at number fifty. The album was finally released on 5 March 2006 with only those two singles released from it and did not chart in the albums
top one hundred in Australia.
The group disbanded due to Naomi Wenitong joining the group The Last Kinection in 2006.
Girl group
A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together.Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production...
from Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, that consisted of Simone Stacey
Simone Stacey
Simone Stacey is an Australian singer and songwriter. She is known for being a former member of Australian girl group Shakaya, along with Naomi Wenitong, from its debut in 2002 to Wenitong's departure from the group in 2006.- Shakaya :...
and Naomi Wenitong
Naomi Wenitong
Naomi Wenitong is an indigenous singer-songwriter based in Newcastle, New South Wales. She is a member of hip hop group The Last Kinection and was a member of ARIA nominated pop group Shakaya. At the 2010 Deadly Awards, where she was the co-host with Luke Carroll, Wenitong won the Deadly for Female...
, two Cairns, North Queensland
North Queensland
North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the state of Queensland in Australia. Queensland is a massive state, larger than most countries, and the tropical northern part of it has been historically remote and undeveloped, resulting in a distinctive regional character and...
based songwriters and performers. The two met at the Atsic Music College in 1999 while studying an Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander music course and they had both been writing individually before they met each other. The girls were initially discovered in Cairns by Reno Nicastro and Michael Pearson-Adams. Nicastro produced most of the girls' songs and gave them free studio time for two years.
The band's name, 'Shakaya', was originally going to be 'Kashaya', but then their manager mixed the letters around and it became 'Shakaya'. Stacey and Wenitong did some research and found out that the word "shakaya" has a broad range of meanings in a lot of different cultures. The one that really stood out for them was the native Indian meaning of "voices in the wind". Shakaya established the duo as Australia's premier female urban pop act and saw them tour with Destiny's Child
Destiny's Child
Destiny's Child was an American R&B girl group whose final line-up comprised lead singer Beyoncé Knowles alongside Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Formed in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors in their pre-teens under the name Girl's Tyme...
, Usher
Usher (entertainer)
Usher Terry Raymond IV , who performs under the mononym Usher, is an American singer-songwriter, and actor. He is considered around the world to be the reigning King of R&B. Usher rose to fame in the late 1990s with the release of his second album My Way, which spawned his first Billboard Hot 100...
, Kylie Minogue
Kylie Minogue
Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...
and Ja Rule
Ja Rule
Jeffrey Atkins , better known by his stage name Ja Rule, is an American rapper, singer, and actor.Born in Hollis, Queens, he began his career in the group Cash Money Click and debuted in 1999 with Venni Vetti Vecci and its single "Holla Holla"...
.
Naomi is now a member of the hip-hop group The Last Kinection
The Last Kinection
The Last Kinection are an Indigenous hip-hop group from Newcastle, New South Wales.They were formed in 2006 Joel Wenitong and DJ Jay Tee from Local Knowledge and Naomi Wenitong from Shakaya. They first came to attention with their reworking of the Peter Allen tune "I Still Call Australia Home"...
Shakaya: 2002-2003
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....
. It was a small, intimate room where they had to perform and they performed four songs. At the end of it, they walked out of the room and within five minutes Sony Music came back and told them they were signed. On 18 January 2002, the duo released their first and debut song called "Stop Calling Me
Stop Calling Me
"Stop Calling Me" is a pop, r&b song written by Reno Nicastro, Simone Stacey and Naomi Wenitong, produced by Nicastro for Shakaya's first album Shakaya . The song is about relationships, about "boyfriends who keep calling after the relationship is over". It was released as the album's first single...
". It is a song about stalking situations based on a real-life experience that they and their male and female friends have had. The song entered the charts at number forty-five on 25 February 2002. The song rose up the charts from then on and because of more airplay the song managed to peak into the top ten at number five. It became Shakaya's biggest hit of their career, being certified platinum by ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
, becoming the forty-third highest selling single for 2002, and being nominated for the "Highest Selling Single" for the 2002 ARIA Awards. The second song released was "Sublime", released in Australia on 17 May 2002 and became the duo's second top twenty single peaking at number nineteen in June 2002. "Cinderella" was the third and last song released by the duo; it became their third top twenty single, peaking at number sixteen, and it was certified gold by ARIA. Their debut self-titled album Shakaya
Shakaya (album)
Shakaya is the first studio album by Australian girl duo Shakaya, released in Australia on 18 October 2002 by Columbia...
was finally released in Australia on 18 October 2002 and was received well, debuting in the charts at number five on 28 October 2002. The album fell to number forty-eight the next week and only spent seven weeks in the top one hundred. On 14 April 2003 the band released a cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of the Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
hit "The Way You Make Me Feel
The Way You Make Me Feel
"The Way You Make Me Feel" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. Released by Epic Records in November 1987, it was the third single from Jackson's seventh studio album Bad. Written and composed by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones , the song is credited as being a pop and R&B...
"; the girls said it was amazing to cover of one of his songs because he is the King of Pop. The song had a minor success on the charts peaking at number twenty-one and staying in the top fifty for seven weeks.
Are You Ready: 2005-2006
Are You Ready (Shakaya album)
Are You Ready is the second album by Australian girl duo Shakaya, released in Australia on 5 March 2006 by Columbia Records. It was produced by Billy Mann and Christopher Rojas and features urban R&B songs — written by Shakaya themselves and Audius Mtawarira, Daniel O'Donoghue, Ruth-Anne...
was recorded over an eighteen month period in Cairns, Sydney, Australia and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with a range of producers. The first song released from the album was titled "Are You Ready?
Are You Ready? (Shakaya song)
"Are You Ready" is an R&B song written by Daniel O'Donoghue and Ruth-Anne Cunningham, also known as the MadNotes production team and recorded by the Australian duo Shakaya...
" and was released on 10 June 2005; it was written and produced by the MadNotes team (who have previously worked with Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...
and Justin Timberlake
Justin Timberlake
Justin Randall Timberlake is an American pop musician and actor. He achieved early fame when he appeared as a contestant on Star Search, and went on to star in the Disney Channel television series The New Mickey Mouse Club, where he met future bandmate JC Chasez...
). The song was promoted well and peaked at number twenty-five on the singles chart
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
. Five months later, the duo released the second and last song from the album, "We Ain't Goin' Down
We Ain't Goin' Down
"We Ain't Goin Down" is the sixth single for the girl duo Shakaya and their second single from their second album Are You Ready. This is Shakaya's final single ever after the group disbanded in 2008.-Track listing:-Charts:...
", on 13 November 2005, and it was their lowest charting single, peaking at number fifty. The album was finally released on 5 March 2006 with only those two singles released from it and did not chart in the albums
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
top one hundred in Australia.
The group disbanded due to Naomi Wenitong joining the group The Last Kinection in 2006.
Albums
| Shakaya Shakaya (album) Shakaya is the first studio album by Australian girl duo Shakaya, released in Australia on 18 October 2002 by Columbia...
|
| Are You Ready Are You Ready (Shakaya album) Are You Ready is the second album by Australian girl duo Shakaya, released in Australia on 5 March 2006 by Columbia Records. It was produced by Billy Mann and Christopher Rojas and features urban R&B songs — written by Shakaya themselves and Audius Mtawarira, Daniel O'Donoghue, Ruth-Anne...
|
Singles
| Year | Song | Australia | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | "Stop Calling Me Stop Calling Me "Stop Calling Me" is a pop, r&b song written by Reno Nicastro, Simone Stacey and Naomi Wenitong, produced by Nicastro for Shakaya's first album Shakaya . The song is about relationships, about "boyfriends who keep calling after the relationship is over". It was released as the album's first single... " |
5 | Shakaya Shakaya (album) Shakaya is the first studio album by Australian girl duo Shakaya, released in Australia on 18 October 2002 by Columbia... |
| "Sublime" | 19 | ||
| "Cinderella" | 16 | ||
| 2003 | "The Way You Make Me Feel The Way You Make Me Feel "The Way You Make Me Feel" is a song by American recording artist Michael Jackson. Released by Epic Records in November 1987, it was the third single from Jackson's seventh studio album Bad. Written and composed by Jackson, and produced by Quincy Jones , the song is credited as being a pop and R&B... " |
21 | Single-only |
| 2005 | "Are You Ready? Are You Ready? (Shakaya song) "Are You Ready" is an R&B song written by Daniel O'Donoghue and Ruth-Anne Cunningham, also known as the MadNotes production team and recorded by the Australian duo Shakaya... " |
25 | Are You Ready Are You Ready (Shakaya album) Are You Ready is the second album by Australian girl duo Shakaya, released in Australia on 5 March 2006 by Columbia Records. It was produced by Billy Mann and Christopher Rojas and features urban R&B songs — written by Shakaya themselves and Audius Mtawarira, Daniel O'Donoghue, Ruth-Anne... |
| "We Ain't Goin' Down We Ain't Goin' Down "We Ain't Goin Down" is the sixth single for the girl duo Shakaya and their second single from their second album Are You Ready. This is Shakaya's final single ever after the group disbanded in 2008.-Track listing:-Charts:... " |
50 |
Awards and recognition
| Year | Award-giving Body | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | ARIA Awards | Highest Selling Single ("Stop Calling Me Stop Calling Me "Stop Calling Me" is a pop, r&b song written by Reno Nicastro, Simone Stacey and Naomi Wenitong, produced by Nicastro for Shakaya's first album Shakaya . The song is about relationships, about "boyfriends who keep calling after the relationship is over". It was released as the album's first single... ") |
Nominated |