Susan Calloway

THE VOICE Combine the edginess of Pink, the soulful power of Adele, and the magical tone of Sarah Mclaughlin, and you would have the START of describing Susan Calloway… Every great artist has something that sets them apart from the crowd. For Susan, it has always been her undeniable voice. HOW IT STARTED Susan began studying classical piano at age 5, followed by classical voice at age 12, much earlier than most teachers would agree to take on a young singer. She was chosen as the lead in the Broadway musical " Annie" at age 9 but could not join the cast due to family complications. Her mother was in a bad car accident when Susan was very young and was in and out of the hospital most of her childhood. Despite all of the family challenges, Susan began writing and performing her own songs at school, church, and other local events. After graduating College with honors, she went on the road as the lead singer and main songwriter for popular mid-west band, Red C, of whom she was a founding member. After many road miles, music awards, and CD's sold, Susan left the band to focus her career as a solo artist. During this time, she also stumbled into a successful career as a session singer, which helped pay the bills for recording and developing her music. It was at one of these sessions that she met her current creative partner, Grammy award winning producer, Gerard Smerek, known for his impressive arsenal of legendary clients ( Aretha Franklin, R Kelly, Kid Rock, Natalie Merchant, Bob Seger, and Diana Ross, to name a few ) It wasn't until meeting Smerek that Susan really stepped into her own as a focused solo artist with a sound, style, and presence to be reckoned with. In 2010, The title song of her first solo EP produced by Smerek, “Chasin The Sun” climbed to #37 on National R&R Charts, and continues to spin on Top 40, Hot AC, and Pandora radio. "Don't Fall in Love, from the same EP, was nominated for a Hollywood Music & Media Award for best Pop song. Over the past few years, a number of her songs have been placed on hit TV shows like “Dawson’s Creek,” “Summerland” and “One Tree Hill.” FINAL FANTASY Most recently, Susan's voice caught the attention of Grammy award winning conductor Arnie Roth, and Renown Final Fantasy Composer Nobuo Uematsu. Strongly believing her vocals would compliment the music from the multi million dollar video game franchise, Final Fantasy, she was asked to sing on Distant World I: Music From Final Fantasy, where she performed “Memoro De La Stona”, and again on Distant Worlds II : Music From Final Fantasy performing, “Melodies of Life” and the very popular, “Suteki Da Ne.” As her popularity with the gaming community grew, Nobuo himself requested that Susan sing his new theme song for Final Fantasy XIV, “Answers”, which was just released in 2013. Now a familiar and celebrated addition to the music of Final Fantasy, Susan joins many of the live concerts on the Distant Worlds: Final Fantasy World Tour as the featured artist, performing sold out shows in Japan, London, Paris, Munich, Montreal, New York, LA, and many other US cities. WHAT'S NEXT ? Susan is currently in the studio with Smerek once again working on new songs & a new music video to be released this year. She will continue to join the Final Fantasy world tour for dates in 2014 as well as be booking some solo performances in both the US and the UK. As Susan's music continues to win her devoted fans thru out the world, she is also known for her active social media presence on Facebook, twitter, Tumblr, and Google Plus, sharing blogs, photos and posts with fans . . and soon to be added, Google hangout concerts. With over one million website visits and thousands of followers, Susan still takes time to answer every tweet, message, or post personally. "These are the people who let me do this for my job. I can't do this without them. We get to choose what we will do with out lives and talents. I want to make a positive difference with my music. I know how hard life can be. Music has always been a place where I could make sense of it all and figure things out - music affects and reflects some of the deepest parts of our soul. So many people are looking for something deeper, for answers, for solace. I want to take my fans on this journey with me - and I want them to know they are not alone. " Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.