Keshia was born in Ottawa, Ontario and she went to St. Peter Catholic High School and then moved to Brampton, Ontario at the age of 14. She then attended Fletcher’s Meadow Secondary School, and graduated with her class in 2007. Her father is of Trinidadian descent and her mother is of Portuguese and Puerto Rican descent. Her debut “Shook (The Answer)” appeared in early 2003. It was only meant to be a “buzz” single but it surprisingly broke into the Top 10 on Canadian music charts and won an Urban Music Award for “Best Pop/R&B Single”. For the follow-up, “Unpredictable”, she released her first video, which hit number one on YTV and the top ten on MuchMusic. In November 2003, the CD single of “Unpredictable” was certified gold. Because of that single, in 2003, she won the Canadian Radio Music Award for “Best New Solo Artist”. In early February 2004, Chanté’s third single, “Bad Boy”, was released. It was also successful, breaking the Top 5 on radio and becoming the #1 video on MuchMusic for 4 weeks. The video was directed by director Little X. Later, in June 2004, Chanté topped the charts again (Top 5) with the release of her fourth single “Does He Love Me?” ft. Foxy Brown which Chanté & Foxy Brown wrote and “Young Gav” (Foxy Brown’s older brother) produced. The video was also directed by Little X and became #1 on MuchMusic for 3 weeks. On June 22, 2004 Chanté released her debut album self-titled debut album. On December 3, 2004 it was certified gold. It contained her previous singles, as well as her later to be released fifth “Let the Music Take You” penned by Chanté. In October 2004, at the Canadian Urban Music Awards Chanté swept all three of nominations, winning awards for “Best New Artist”, “Video of the Year” (for Bad Boy), “Fans’ Choice Award” and by surprise taking home the “Rising Star of the Year” award. After her signing, Chanté moved to New York to begin working on her second album. During that time, Chante was on Teen People Magazines “Rock The Runway” Mall Tour (where Ciara started) and Seventeen Magazine’s “Rock N’ Shop” Mall Tour (where Britney Spears started). In May 2006, she posted 3 brand new songs, “Been Gone”, “Kiss” and “Summer Love” on MySpace. In March 2006 she released her “2U” Album teaser single, “Ring The Alarm”, which was used for WarChild’s “Keep The Beat” charity campaign. All the proceeds from “Ring The Alarm” went to supported children at war and was also featured on triple platinum compilation “MuchDance 2006”. In July of that year, she released her single “Been Gone”, produced by Philadelphia’s Matrax Productions. The video was shot by Little X (making it her 3rd collaboration with him) and was shot inside of “Fletcher’s Meadow Secondary School” where Chante attended in her last year of school and graduated. Her second single, “2U”, produced by Matrax was released in early November. 2U’s video was shot on October 22 in Miami by director Bobby O’Neill, and was released on Yahoo Music Canada on November 16. Also in 2006, Chanté made a featured cameo appearance in label mate Bow Wow’s video “Shortie Like Mine”. The video depicts Rapper Bow Wow searching for Keshia Chanté on his laptop. They send messages back and forth throughout the video. Her second album was released on December 5, 2006 in Canada through Sony/BMG Canada and was released in May 2007 in Japan. In August 2008, Chante began filming Soul, a television series in which she stars as “Mahalia”. In February 2009, Soul began to air on VisionTV throughout Canada. Chante is the face of Ontario Tourism and sings the theme song “There’s No Place Like This”. Chanté is the face of Sony’s new Cyber-Shot Digital Camera and was the face of EckoRed in 2006. Building awareness about AIDS with the Stephen Lewis Foundation and BET’S Rap-It-Up campaign, building awareness about children affected by war in third world countries with WarChild’s Keep The Beat and has visited Dominican Republic to work with World Vision. Award wins|2003|Urban Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Single for “Shook (The Answer)” |Canadian Radio Music Award for Best New Artist |2004|Canadian Urban Music Award for Best New Artist |Canadian Urban Music Award for Video Of The Year for “Bad Boy” |Canadian Urban Music Award for Fans Choice |2005|Juno Award for R&B/Soul Recoding Of The Year |Canadian Urban Music Award for Video Of The Year for “Does He Love Me?” |2006|Yahoo Music Canada Online Award for Best Canadian Video for “Been Gone” |
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