´óÏó´«Ã½

Explore the ´óÏó´«Ã½
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

24 September 2014

´óÏó´«Ã½ Homepage

Local ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sites

Neighbouring Sites

Related ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sites


Contact Us

News and Interviews

You are in: Manchester > Entertainment > Music > News and Interviews > All singing, all dancing

Tsana (c) Shirlaine Forrest

Tsana (c) Shirlaine Forrest

All singing, all dancing

There’s no denying that in Manchester, getting noticed musically is a lot more difficult if you’re singing soul or jazz than if you are whacking out a three minute tune on a guitar, but that hasn’t stopped one young artist from following her dream.

Tsana first came to a wider audience when she arrived on Karen Gabay’s The People on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Manchester a couple of years ago to help promote a new church. Since then, she’s been gigging away, making slow but steady process at such places as the now defunct Dpercussion.

Now, two years on from her last chat with Karen, she returned to discuss her new music and how that first experience had a life-changing effect on her.

Tsana

Tsana

"When I first came to the ´óÏó´«Ã½, I was helping to promote a new church in Cheetham Hill, but that was the first time I’d ever done anything along the lines of gospel.

"But it definitely left something with me, because now I go to church every week and I didn’t do that before."

Holding on to a dream

As many 20 year olds do, Tsana has found herself at a crossroads, wondering what to do – follow her dream or give it up to work on something more concrete. Thankfully, she sees her career path as being somewhere between the two. After all, she says she could never give up singing.

"I think that’s always been in me. I’ve never really seen anything else that I wanted to do. When I left school, I started doing part time jobs and I got into working with children. I thought ‘this is a profession I also like’.

Tsana

Tsana

"I found that I had a passion for singing and working with young people, inspiring young people, so ultimately, in the long run, I’d like to blend the two together and give people what I had and didn’t have when I was growing up; places where they can go and be creative and express themselves through music, through dance, through theatre.

"But the singing has always been there. Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve always wanted to sing."

Finding her space

Of course, to follow such a dream, you have to keep being inspired and Tsana has found her will to succeed being invigorated by one of a modern musician’s greatest tools – MySpace.

"It’s a way for people to find out about you as an artist and I feel then that I can’t let them down. When people write and say ‘that Going Going Gone tune is amazing, have you got any others?’ I need to make sure I’m delivering for them.

"It’s a great way for musicians to come together and share ideas, and I’ve learnt quite a lot, so it’s definitely been a blessing for me."

Tsana on being part of the MySpace revolution

"But it’s also a great way for musicians to come together and share ideas, and I’ve learnt quite a lot, so it’s definitely been a blessing for me, the whole MySpace."

Juggling books and hooks

Delivering those new tunes is going to be that bit more difficult for Tsana over the next few years, as she’s just started at university, though she insists that she’ll find a way to do well at both things.

"I’ll have to get it done because I have no choice. I don’t think it’ll be that much of a problem, because it’s performing arts [that Tsana is studying] and they’re the same field.

"Hopefully, they’ll bounce of each other, but obviously there will be times when I have a gig when I should be at uni and I’ll have to decide which is more important. When it gets to the time, I’ll think about it then!"

If there’s any justice, those times will start to become more frequent, because Tsana’s songs deserve a wider audience. Until then, we’ll just have to keep enjoying her as a hidden gem in her hometown.

Tsana plays the Attic on Oxford Road on Sunday 25 November. Tickets are £3.

last updated: 11/10/07

You are in: Manchester > Entertainment > Music > News and Interviews > All singing, all dancing

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

all the music on the ´óÏó´«Ã½



About the ´óÏó´«Ã½ | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy
Ìý