Meet Pop/Rock Singer "Mahaya" from Toronto, Ontario

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Born in Iran, Mahaya struggled with cultural beliefs that hindered her real dreams of becoming a singer and performer. Performing in any kind of way is prohibited and against the law for women so all she could do at that time was close her eyes and imagine herself on a stage. As she grew up, she would listen to idols like Aretha Franklin, Beyoncé, Celine Dion, and Christina Aguilera.For the love of music, she started learning English to be able to cover their songs and slowly learned to write her own songs in Persian ,English and later in French. She eventually was able to convince the principal of her high school to let her have a concert for girls and it was through this that she realized that music is the only career she wanted to pursue in her life no matter what. Financial struggles growing up caused her to wait until she turned 18 and was able to work to afford music lessons herself. She attended Conservatory of Music , studied Music performance and soon formed a rock band called "Mercaptan". They performed several shows in the underground scene in Tehran but she began to find it increasingly difficult, as an artist of passion, to stay quiet and inactive just because of unreasonable laws so she traveled to Turkey to find some vocal freedom. Since Turkey was not very different from Iran , she had to return home. In Iran she formed a Pop band called "Mahaya"and planned to have underground concerts in places where the risk of getting arrested was low. They began to perform at various Embassies of Russia, France and Austria - in Tehran! The band even received an award from the Austrian Cultural Forum in appreciation of their constant effort and for their amazing performances.She also released a song alonge with a Music video called "Your perfume" which went viral and attracted so much attention across the country . While this was a good news at the first place , the exposure led her to a big trounble with the government so she had to leave her country in order to continue her career. Eventually, she immigrated to Canada, where she could actively pursue a career in music and formed a new band . Starting off shy in front of audiences, and having the experience she has had while showing true grit and determination has made Mahaya into the brilliantly strong and powerful vocalist that she is today.She is now ready to show the world - including all of the people and powers that tried to hold her back from her true potential - just what she's really made of!