Based: Cape Town
Belinda has never had vocal training and is blessed with a 4 octave vocal range and the ability to sing any genre.
The fourth child of seven children, Belinda Davids was born and bred in Gelvandale Port Elizabeth, South Africa. She attended Alpha Primary School where she discovered her love for music. At a young age Belinda was singing around the house and humming to music on the radio. As a young girl one of her very first LP’s she ever owned was a song called “Hold Me” by Teddy Pendergrass and Whitney Houston. The quality and style Whitney portrayed in this song struck a cord with Belinda and her fascination with the icon grew. Belinda sang Whitney’s music at every chance, at family gatherings, talent competitions and to friends whilst playing on the street. Like many young girls at that time her room walls were plastered with posters and cut outs from magazines of the icon. Whitney’s influence was so strong it inspired her from her dress sense to her hairstyles. As a young woman Belinda had the burning desire to live out her dreams and follow in her idols footsteps. At the age of 14 she joined a band called Maiden Voyage, where they took on the club circuit and started performing in clubs that left many people amazed as to how similar she sounded to the icon. She has never had vocal training and is blessed with a 4 octave vocal range and the ability to sing any genre, her musical heart has always been R&B. Belinda’s musical inspirations as a child were Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker, Chaka Khan, Donny Hathaway, Michael Jackson and the one artist that she still to this day cannot complete a show without performing one of her songs…Whitney Houston.
During this period she met her first manager at one of the nightclubs where she was performing. They recorded some demos and shopped around for a record deal. After a two-year period she was signed to BMG. The record executives did not know what to do with her musically as she sounded too similar to Whitney Houston. Belinda then caught the eye of record executives of Tusk Records, which spawned the album “Belinda Davids”. Three of the songs on this album, which Belinda wrote, were released as singles, “This I Swear”, “This Is My Life.” and “We Go Together”. The latter was number one for six weeks in South Africa. Belinda appeared all over South Africa for a number of years at various hotels, clubs & cabaret’s promoting her album. She opened shows for many international acts when they visited our shores like Michael Jackson’s History Tour, The Manhattans, The Temptations and Peaches and Herbs. Years after her debut album Belinda met a woman who offered her a deal she could not refuse. She decided to travel abroad to expand her musical career, which took her to Dubai, London and Hong Kong to perform in major hotels and clubs with renowned success. Whilst performing “I Will Always Love You” at a hotel in Hong Kong she was requested by the audience to sing acapella as they thought she was lip-syncing to the original Whitney Houston song after which she received a standing ovation.
At the age of 25 she left for The USA to finally pursue her childhood dream of becoming an international star. She finally settled in Los Angeles where she started to focus on getting her solo career back on track. In L.A she collaborated with R&B singer/producer Sam Salter who worked on a couple of her promotional tracks. She also caught the attention of many R&B artists who asked her to perform and tour with them, artists like Keyshia Cole, Monica, Johnny Gill, Kelly Price and Keri Hilson. She appeared on The Jay Leno Show and The George Lopez Show as a back-up vocalist for Monica.
In early 2011 she decided to make her way back home due to family responsibilities.
Belinda will play the lead role in the Houston tribute show The Greatest Love of All produced by Showtime Australia, the company behind Kenny Wizz’s Michael Jackson tribute show History. She also has a couple of projects that she will be focusing on regarding her career in the coming year including her album.
