Ann Marie Alanes

Bio

Malaya Mai grew up on Chicago's Southside, with her sister and parents. She lived on an unpaved street in the middle of gang-graffitied warehouses & factories where many a stolen car would be stripped, then set on fire. Her mom helped her stay out of trouble by fostering her lifelong love of dance and music. Malaya began studying many styles of dance at 8 years of age under the instruction of Madame Elizabeth Boitsov, former Master Teacher at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and founder of the Boitsov Classical Ballet School in Chicago. Malaya discovered her love for hip-hop dance as a teen. Inspired by the choreography in Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul's music videos, she formed a couple of dance groups, winning competitions in both high school and college. She was an avid participant in high school theater, where she received high praise for her vocal performances. Malaya was a late bloomer in the music industry despite having worked right out of college as a professional hip-hop dancer for the former Bears' football cheerleaders, The Chicago Honey Bears, and NBC's The Jenny Jones Show. An undiscovered songwriter since her teen years, Malaya made her way to Los Angeles and then the San Francisco Bay Area where she met music producer and artist Clayton William McChesney of Trinity Music Group. Shortly after returning home in the wee hours of the morning from one of Clayton's shows, she wrote the song that he would eventually produce as her debut single, "Flip The Coin". Read more: http://www.myspace.com/malayamai#ixzz0vqzNC4Ya