Motown’s Kin – Aiyana Lee Anderson

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

She comes with a bubbly personality, a passion for music, a love of life and a special gift bred into her by her family whose talent lists a mile long.  She is ready to release her first album, and is already a huge hit in Romania.  And here’s the kicker- she is only eight.  Aiyana Lee Anderson isn’t your typical eight-year-old girl in some ways. After all, not many eight-year-old girls have their own CD coming out and a hit in other countries.

Aiyana Lee Anderson was born and bred into the music business, her genes carry the gift bestowed to her which she already recognized and is sharing with the world.  She knew early on singing was her life since she’s been doing it since she was two. Her mom, Nicole, is a talented singer, song writer and composer of music.  She has blessed the world with her talents for years and now she lends her experience and talent to her daughter.  On the other side of the spectrum, Aiyana also has some American legends in her family whose genes were passed down to her as well.  Her uncle is David Ruffin from The Temptations, best known for his hit “My Girl.”  She has motown in her blood and loves the hits they produced in the ’50s and ’60s.

Amazingly, Aiyana Lee has a broad genre reach meaning that she sings pop, jazz, motown, R&B, and really anything that she finds a good beat to.  For some artists, it’s hard to find that one genre and do it well, but not Aiyana; if she can dance to it then it’s worth singing.  Being able to sing in the different genres takes discipline and practice, something Aiyana loves to work on.  For her, singing isn’t practice.  Instead, it’s fun and fills her soul with happiness; something she hopes you can hear and feel when you hear her music or see her perform.

One of the things she loves most about performing, is being able to perform with her mother on stage.  In the modern family we see lots of parents struggling to find something to relate to their child with, something they can do together.  Well, Nicole and Aiyana had no trouble and they perform together for countries.  I, personally, haven’t seen them perform live yet, but I bet watching a mother/daughter duet on stage would be nothing short of magical.

Aiyana has performed in her home country of England, Romania, and Germany, as well as a few others.  She is already really big in Romania, and is about to return there to perform some more for the first few weeks into November.  Aiyana recently had a small tour with her mom there in Romania, where she has accumulated a lot of fans.  Her mom is from Romania, therefore, it’s extra special to have her treasured in their hearts, and let me tell you, she has Romania in hers.

Aiyana’s New CD

In just a few short weeks, Aiyana will release her first CD before her ninth birthday, a self-titled compilation.  It will be released digitally on CD Baby for distribution everywhere.  Aiyana says the CD will contain a mixture of genres so there is something for everyone.  She incorporates pop to jazz.  As a special tribute, Aiyana will sing “My Girl” and “Just My Imagination” from The Temptations, songs that made her uncle famous.  Those songs will be especially fun to listen to because it’s always enjoyable watching a younger generation sing songs from their family.  Look at Natalie Cole and her remake of her dad’s, “Unforgettable.”

The CD contains fifteen songs, some written by Aiyana herself and some by her mother, Nicole.  One of the songs was written by Nicole for Celine Dion, performed by Aiyana.  There is also master song writer Michael Jay and producer Tony Matthews who contributed to the album.  (Tony worked with legends such as James Brown and Whitney Houston.)

With people like that lending their talents to Aiyana, this album should be a sure success.

She’s Still A Child

Despite the success she is experiencing, and the talent she has worked with, Aiyana still takes time out to be a little girl growing up in this big world.  She plays with her friends, goes to school, watches movies and enjoys life; things a typical eight-year-old girl would do.

Even though her schedule is tough with touring, singing, and living a life of the typical child, she loves and maintains good grades in school.  One of her favorite subjects is World History, and she doesn’t complain about doing homework!  But when she’s not doing anything, her favorite thing to do is spend time with her mother, who she credits for her success.  ”My mom has done everything for my singing. I love her so much, she’s amazing.”

Aiyana is a very special young girl, who loves the lime light and has no intentions of not growing up to be a singer.  I asked her what she would do if singing didn’t happen for her when she grew up and her response was solid. “Nope, not going to happen… singing is what I am here to do.”

Keep an eye out for her new album set to release soon, and check up on Aiyana on her Myspace page: www.myspace.com/aiyanaleeanderson

Also don’t miss our one-on-one interview with her.  You can hear it on the Artist One-on-One podcast in our podcast section.