Honey Jam Canada Barbados Trip Winner

wwetvsports21
Aug 14, 2015
3 min read

(WWETV) Topshot Pictures was on site for the 20th anniversary of Honey Jam. In this video you will see Ebonnie Rowe announce the winner for the trip to Barbados award to Melissa Megan. Melissa began her performing career early on with dance, piano and musical theatre before ultimately finding her passion for singing. She trained with Pete Palazzolo at the Canadian Conservatory of Music, where she recorded both original and cover songs and was eventually hired on as a vocal teacher. She has competed and placed in vocal competitions including LaSalle Idol, Western Idol, Western Voice and Windsor Idol, which she won.

She has played gigs throughout Ontario, has done numerous performances with Black Dahlia for the NBL’s London Lightning, and her most recent performance was with Danielle Wade, winner of CBC’s “Over the Rainbow: The Search for the Next Dorothy.” Melissa took her music experiences and used them as the basis for her Bachelor’s of Psychology thesis at Brescia University College where she studied the effects of music on the brain. Her research changed her relationship with music and has helped her better understand her artistry. She is currently writing for her debut EP, which she hopes to release in 2016. Below is an excerpt from Torontoist interview with the founder of the event:

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Torontoist: How did Honey Jam get started? Ebonnie Rowe: I started Each One Teach One, a mentorship program that connected black youth with professionals. I was hanging out with teenagers and listening to the music they were listening to, and gangster rap in particular, which was unapologetically misogynistic. I would have my female mentees tell me that their little brothers were calling them “bitch” and “ho” because they heard it on the radio. At that time there didn’t need to be clean versions on college radio. I approached the biggest hip-hop DJ in Canada—DJX of CKLN’s Power Move Show—and he offered me his three-hour show to produce and talk about the negative images portrayed of women in the music industry. Someone listening asked me to edit an all-female version of their magazine featuring local female artists and Honey Jam was born out of that. Honey Jam was essentially a wrap party for the magazine, and we featured some of the women from that special issue. It was supposed to be a one-off, but then everyone asked when’s the next one? I thought, “Okay maybe I’ll do it for a year and see how it goes,” and here we are twenty years later. Walk us through the lead-up to the concert: there’s an audition process, a mentorship program, and all kinds of delicious support for emerging artists! How does this help shape the performers’ experience of Honey Jam? It defines their experience, it is their experience. The auditions, the launch where we have a known artist come and speak with them about their journey in the industry, a full day free workshop at Harris Institute about funding, management, media, song writing, etc., attending Drake’s OVO summit, one-on-one vocal & Performance coaching by celebrity coach Elaine Overholt: it is all very impactful for them.