Danelle de Vries

Danelle is a singer/songwriter who lives in Paarl in the beautiful Western Cape Province of South Africa. Her training in music started at an early age with tuition in piano and music theory through UNISA. She started vocal coaching at age 16, with exposure to singing competitions, school musicals and eisteddfods a plenty. After school she enroled at the Waterfront Theatre School where she completed her international diplomas in Musical Theatre, Drama and Dance through Trinity College of London. Here she excelled, passing all her disicplines with Honour and featuring as a lead role in many college productions.

Since 2006 Danelle has been working as a live performing artist. She has performed with numerous outfits, ranging from the Johnny Cooper Big Band, Track 5 Jazz vocal group to an 80’s cover band. Although performing with many a different outfit as vocalist, she kept true to herself in composing and performing her original material whenever she got the opportunity.

In 2011 she was scouted by SONY Music Entertainment Africa while performing in a small restaurant in Franschhoek. The debut album “Son sien Opkom” followed and was released at the beginning of October 2012 with 13 of the 14 tracks her own compositions. Danelle classifies her music style as “Meander Folk”, making music from the heart while following the route the Universe dictates. She composes in Afrikaans, her native tongue, as well as English. Sometimes she dreams in Afrikaans, sometimes in English. Who knows what’s next? What we do know is that Danelle is just as comfortable performing on a big stage with her full band, smaller venues as a duo or simply for 30-40 people at an intimate house concert. She plays the guitar and piano and sometimes even take up the bass on certain songs.

Nature, the beauty of planet Earth and the impact we as humans have on it, surely has a big influence on her work. Life still happens, so the more mainstream topics like “love” and “getting jiggy with it” get some thought as well. Be sure though that Danelle will tell the story in her own unique way, beautiful lyrics combined with a powerful melody. The quality of her live performances is the sum total of years of experience performing live, honing her skills as musician and a strong belief in bringing Light into your listeners lives.

The beginning…..