Kat Harlton
Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Shantaia’s voice, much like her name, is unforgettable. Shantaia has opened for some of Nashville’s biggest names such as; Kane Brown, Chris Lane, Ryan Hurd, Emerson Drive, Charlie Major and more.
The 2019 SCMA Emerging Artist of the year released her comeback single “I Wish You Would” in early 2020 which amassed over 100,000 streams on Spotify in less than a month, hit 69 on Mediabase charts, 72 on BDS, had radio play in the United States and now is onward to 350k streams on Spotify alone. She followed up with her debut EP “Chapter One”, and her last radio release “Two Cents” has since garnered over 200k Spotify streams.
Shantaia recently released her new single “Had A Good Weekend” and we had the opportunity to chat with her about her new music, what she’s hoping fans will connect with on the track, and what’s next.
Kat: Can you talk about the inspiration behind your latest single “Had A Good Weekend”?
Shantaia: My good friend and co-writer Ryan Sorestad and I were both in Saskatchewan during harvest time 2019 and had the rainy evening lined up to write in Saskatoon at my place at the time. The day was gloomy and rainy, and I had a start on this song already that just felt like it would lift us up and get us out of that gloomy mood! That was how “Had A Good Weekend” was born!
Kat: What do you hope fans take from the track?
Shantaia: Especially in these times with the global pandemic, I hope fans can escape mentally from this crazy world and remember all the good times pre-covid, and can start to visualize the future good times with friends and family post-covid while listening to this fun, upbeat track!
Kat: What do you find is the most challenging part of your creative process?
Shantaia: Staying creative ALL of the time. Especially being in Nashville now, there can be a lot of pressure to be on your “A game” all of the time when walking into new writing rooms every single day. Especially when you do more than just write songs every day. As an independent artist, there’s so much more to think about like picking songs to record, booking studio days, hiring a radio promo team, pr team, videography, and getting all those things to correlate with each other and actually executing it. All these extra jobs that come with being an artist can really get in the way of the creative process sometimes!
Kat: What has been a career highlight for you so far? What have you learned along the way?
Shantaia: There have been so many career highlights, it’s hard to choose! Opening for artists like Kane Brown, Chris Lane, Emerson Drive and Charlie Major. Winning 2019 SCMA Emerging Artist of the Year, being selected to play festivals like Cavendish Beach Music Fest and Dauphins Country Fest, and AmericanaFest to name a few. But getting approved for my O1 visa and being able to move to Nashville full time has been the icing on the cake so far. I truly feel like I’m living the life I was meant to live!
Kat: What’s next?
Shantaia: So many things! We have a partnership announcement coming up, some awesome content coming your way, and a lot more music in the works and coming this year! It’s all very exciting, and we can’t wait for live shows to come back so that I can come back to Canada and play some amazing festivals! Hope to see you all soon!
For more on Shantaia visit: https://www.shantaiamusic.com