Growing up, Shantaia always had a love for country music, entering competitions across the country and performing onstage every chance she had. Already in singing lessons at the age of 3, guitar followed at age 6 and a love for writing songs soon after at age 9 when her great grandpa became ill. Shantaia wrote her very first song about losing a loved one and what it would be like when they were gone. Writing songs about her life and experiences has been second nature since.
Shantaia was 13 when she performed on the Craven Country Jamboree Main Stage. Flash forward to a young girl just of high school, in December of 2015, Shantaia had the opportunity to record 3 original songs in Nashville with CCMA and Juno award winning artist Crystal Shawanda, and in 2016, released her first single “Crave You” to radio and after the release of her sophomore single ‘Girls Like Me” had a successful radio & concert tour across western Canada.
A notable memory for the 22 year old, Shantaia was asked to audition by “The Voice” for season 8, but chose to stay true to her roots and continue on her own path. Since then she has again been asked to audition for “The Voice” by the casting producers. Beginning at a young age, she has had the privilege to have toured the festival circuit, opening for countless Country Artists from The Bellamy Brothers, Charlie Major & Kane Brown to Ryan Hurd & Emerson Drive, and most recently, Chris Lane and Cold Creek County and played major festivals such as Cavendish Beach Music Festival, Dauphin’s Country Fest, North by North East and Country Thunder Saskatchewan.
Shantaia was named Emerging Artist of the year in 2019 at the SCMA awards, and excitedly ended her 2019 touring season with her first ever full band show in Nashville, TN for the major music festival and conference, AmericanaFest. Starting 2020 on a high note, Shantaia released her new single “I Wish You Would” on January 3rd, which curated over 100,000 streams on Spotify in just over 3 weeks. Her highly anticipated EP “Chapter One” (produced by Doug Oliver, engineered by Trevor Macleod, and mixed by Scott Cooke and Jordan Oorebeek) was released on April 3rd 2020.