Pronunciation kay - ah - loh - hah Pronouns they/them/she/her
BIO
"Dynamic, multi-pronged musical paradise. Grounded, Elevated, oceanic, bars, all of it" (Music Waste Festival 2022). KeAloha weaves soundscapes of Indigi-Pop wonder, fluidly owning the stage as a vocalist, drummer, and dancer.
KeAloha’s young love for tap dance led her Mom to surprise her with drum lessons when she was 12. “At 18 I moved to xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations in 2014 where I achieved a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Drums on full scholarship."
KeAloha is a mixed-Indigenous and chronically-ill artist based in so-called “Vancouver, BC". Her music carries essences of Alternative RnB, Latin-fusion, and Dream Pop mixed with sounds inspired by her Hawaiian, Tahitian and Lheidli T'enneh Indigeneity. Lianne La Havas meets Anderson Paak, Keali’i Reichel meets Thundercat. With the grounding force of her foundation as a drummer, KeAloha’s music packs treats for those with a decolonial sweet tooth.
This project was born out of necessity. “Living with chronic illness is like being a bird asked to learn a life on the ground. What I have cultivated is the power in shape-shifting, the beauty in unplanned paths, the relationships that bloom through deepened empathy, and the ancestral voices of resilience.”
KeAloha’s second single, was nominated to CBC Searchlight Top 100 in 2021. “Mama’s Hands celebrates my Mom, Nani, who raised me and my 2 older siblings… and celebrating our triumphs as a low income, brown, femme gang hailing from the North-West of Turtle Island” said KeAloha (Aesthetic Magazine). Her third single - Mahina - reached #13 in the Indigenous Music Countdown, “under a groove with rnb, soul and pop intonations, the singer mixes and interweaves the sounds in a percussive instrumentation and a tenderly beautiful song.“ (Iggy Magazine).
The fall of 2021 to present has seen KeAloha across stages and festivals in Turtle Island, including Indigenous Day Live presented by APTN, Music Waste, Vines Festival, Shipyards Festival, and BreakOut West.
With her debut album rooting to bloom in 2023, KeAloha invites us into a world of Indigenous Futurisms.
LINEAGE
I am a Great-Great-Grandchild of Granny Seymour, “Matriarch of the North” of the Lheidli T’enneh Nation; medicine woman, trapper, crafter, and knowledge keeper. I am the Great Grandchild of Captain Owen Browne, and Grandchild of Earl Browne, who passed the traditions of Hawaiian and Tahitian dances down to my Mom, who in turn taught my siblings and I. I am the Grandchild of Lorraine Grove, descended from Irish farmer-settlers, and paternally descended from Chinese immigrants.
Music, dance, and storytelling are vessels for me to learn and express the wisdom of being a disabled, queer, Indigenous Two-Spirit femme.
LANDS
I grew up in the urban centre of so-called "Prince George, BC" in my native Lheidli T'enneh territory. When I was 18 I moved to the unsurrendered ancestral homelands of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations ("Vancouver, BC").
'O KeAloha ko'u inoa
My name is KeAloha
"An interdisciplinary artist of music, dance, and percussion,
KeAloha’s expressive journey began when she learned the
traditional dances of her Hawaiian and Tahitian Ohana."