Tanika was born in Toronto, Canada to Trinidadian parents, but energy sector opportunities soon brought the family out west to Edmonton, Alberta. Music was a constant in the Charles household. Her father would return from two weeks on site with the latest jazz records for Tanika and her brothers to jam out to. A few years later Tanika’s eldest brother would be the first to coach her on how to sing and how to record a song. But the allure of the road and perhaps deep rooted nomadic notions pulled Tanika off the prairies and over to coastal Vancouver as a young adult. There she did some backup singing, and learned what tour life was like, but it wasn’t until she returned to Toronto that dreams of becoming a professional artist began to come to fruition. She recorded her first EP What?What!What?!, assembled her first band, and quickly became a fixture of the local music scene. At the same time, the world took notice of that scene, and of Tanika too.
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