Maddy Rodriguez

Maddy Rodriguez was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on December 6, 1993. From an early age, she showed a very strong inclination to the arts, music in particular. She loved to listen and dance to music even before she could walk. Her parents exposed her to all genres of music from classical, baroque and romantic to contemporary Pop music from the seventies, eighties, nineties and even American standards from the 40’s and 50’s like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennet. Her Father used to play her a lot of Elton John, Billy Joel as well as Willie Nelson, John Denver and James Taylor. Her Father, being originally from Mexico used to also listen to several latin and Spanish artists like La Oreja de Van Gogh, Juan Luis Guerra, Luis Miguel, Joaquin Sabina, Silvio Rodriguez, the Buena Vista Social Club and more recently to Maná, the Mexican Pop Rock Group. In the nineties she loved the Spice Girls and Billy Joel’s River of Dreams was a particular favourite (In the Middle of the Night). As she was growing up she also listened to artists like Norah Jones and Diana Krall. The first concert she ever attended was a Britney Spears concert at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto when Ms. Spears was promoting “Lucky,” before she became whatever she is now. Interestingly enough, Maddy was so tired (she was 6 years old) by the time Britney Spears came out to perform, that she only saw 4 or 5 songs and was taken home to bed. When Maddy was 7 or 8 years old she began singing in choirs, most notably the Mississauga children’s choir where she started to learn the discipline of training and preparing to sing. With the Mississauga Children’s Choir she also had the opportunity to perform at various venues including participating in a massive choral performance at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto when several choirs in the metropolitan area came together to perform for various dignitaries and the public. But Maddy always wanted to be a solo artist. She asked her parents repeatedly to get her individual lessons and she finally got her wish when she was 9 years old and began training with renownedvocal coach Elaine Overholt . Elaine was the first teacher that gave her a strong foundation in the singing arena. Maddy was the youngest student at one ofElaine’s Vocal Boot Camps at that time. This training gave Maddy more confidence as a singer. But singing in choirs or at home was not enough. Maddy wanted to sing as a solo artist. Then began a quest to find her opportunities to sing wherever she could. At first she began with family get togethers, birthdays and such. Some years went by and she began singing at friend’s weddings, always using backup tracks and singing covers. Then came high school. Maddy enrolled in one of the best arts high school’s in Canada pursuing a major in Music Theatre, since there is no program in contemporary singing. Her vocal training increased both in and out of school. She also enrolled in acting studies outside of school at the Dean Armstrong Acting studios in Toronto. She figured that if she achieved some successed in acting, this could open doors for her music. Her parents supported her and eventually she was able to get an agent for her acting pursuits. She is currently signed to AMI Artist Management for any projects in the acting field. By this time Maddy when Maddy was 13 or 14, she began to perform at singing competitions, not so much to win the competitions, but to get more opportunities to perform in public.Maddy continues to study singing and acting with various vocal coaches in and outside of school . All along Maddy has continued to perform wherever she can. She has performed at the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto (where she’s been part of the Kids believe in SickKids community for several years), Toronto’s Talent, Community Cable TV show, at her local Timothy’s coffee shop (to raise funds for Sick Kids) and at open mics in Toronto. Maddy knew that singing well was not enough to start a music career.. She knew that she needed to have something special or a disctinctive ’style’ that set her apart from everyone else trying to make it in the music business… but the problem was that Maddy loved to sing everything! And she didn’t know what made her different.. So when Maddy was 13 she began to research the singers she admired for inspiration and found that many of them were songwriters. She had been taking guitar lessons for some time by then so Maddy decided to try to write her own songs…. At first it was a hobby. But after spending more and more time writing, she realized that it was becoming her passion. “Songwriting changed everything! It helped me figure out who I am as an artist.” She began showing her songs to her friends and family and they discovered that she had a talent for songwriting. Little by little, writing and practicing relentlessly, she started coming up with songs that people really liked! . Then towards the end of June 2009 she got to perform some of her songs for total strangers