Alisha Hamid, popularly known by her stage name ‘Sasha Melody’, is an international recording artiste who hails from a musical background. Her passion for music began since she was just three years old.
Alisha is the first in her family to be born in the U.S. She credits her parents, natives from Guyana, as her influence for pursuing music at an early age. Her father, who liked to DJ in his spare time, would play soca music from renowned artistes such as Byron Lee, Arrow and Sparrow, which is how she discovered her love for soca music.
“I come from a musical family. My grandfather is a pastor in Brooklyn, NY. At the age of three, I began singing on the church stage where my grandmother would play the organ and sing back-up vocals for me, and my uncles would play the guitar – forming a family band,” the 31-year-old recalled in an interview with Sunday Times Magazine.
In school, Alisha sang in the Monarch High School Concert Choir and began acting and vocal training at the Academy of Performing Arts School in Denver, Colorado at The Academy of Art.
In 2000 Alisha competed in the World Championships of Performing Arts where she was awarded three gold medals – one each for singing, acting and spokes modelling. These achievements landed her a role on the first nationally syndicated show in television history – Soul Train, hosted by Hollywood actor Shemar Moore. For three years Alisha remained on the show, which was filmed at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, CA.
