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South Africa's Phoenix Kayode is a singer songwriter full of wit, passion and life.
Growing up in South East London Phoenix joined the Lewisham Youth Theatre that provided a beginning step for his experience as a performer. This led to him attending the London Metropolitan University where he graduated with an honours degree in Performing Arts
Phoenix first came to South Africa in 1997 through Phakama, a youth art programme that encourages cultural exchange through arts on an international basis. Phoenix fell in love with the country and realised he wanted to continue to work in an industry where the creativity and talent was overwhelming. He featured as the lead actor in adverts for Old Mutual, Hunters Dry, Mercedes and Yellow Pages, which were all broadcast internationally. In 2006 he became the host of Survivor Africa. After he went on to take a lead role in ETV show ‘Shooting Stars’ where you can catch the new series with him in later in the year.
His music talent was yet to be discovered……. In Cape Town he felt in his own space and started to develop his solo material. After gigging around Cape Town he caught the eye of music veteran Yoel Kenan. In the past Yoel has been looking after the international recording careers of artists such as Dido, Pink, Avril, Mary J Blige, Enrique Iglesias and many others while holding senior positions at Universal Music International and BMG Europe. He soon signed Phoenix to his South African music label Runway Music.
As a song-writer Phoenix has been writing songs for bands in South Africa and in the UK that have had wide commercial success. As a performer he has been playing in Cape Town, Johannesburg and London headlining numerous clubs. His voice is warm and sensual keeping in tradition with some of his motown idols Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder. He will be performing in Europe in July in the run up to his album release. The debut album from Phoenix Kayode is out on 08/08/08. His songs are soulful and uplifting, drawing on stories about his life experience. His infectious sound is certainly hitting South Africa in 2008.