Local musician Madison Galloway is preparing for a performance in front of the biggest crowd of her life.
On Aug. 11 the 16-year-old from Fergus will be performing in Toronto at the Mod Club as part of Honey Jam.
Female artists from across Canada auditioned in June to be part of the Toronto showcase – and only 15 were chosen.
“I was pretty excited because it’s a pretty big and insane competition,” Galloway said. “Like all those girls who were auditioning were really, really good and … back before Nelly Furtado was real big she had actually done the competition.
“That was one of the things that kind of started off her career. So that was pretty cool.”
Honey Jam is a yearly concert that features Canada’s next generation of up-and-coming female artists.
This year artists will come from as far west as British Columbia and as far east as Nova Scotia, representing a range of genres, including pop, hip-hop, rap, R&B, soul, dance, country and folk.
“We were all so impressed by the high level of talent that came out to the auditions,” Ebonnie Rowe, founder and producer of Honey Jam, stated in a press release.
“We can’t wait for others to see them hit the stage and for the rest of the country to meet them.”
For Galloway, the audience of potentially 750 people will be the biggest of her career so far.
“I love performing and the more people the better,” she said. “So I’m really excited about that and the Mod Club is a really awesome venue for it so that will be really cool to play there – just like there in general plus 750 people and there’s going to be a lot of people from the industry as well there.”
On Aug. 11 Galloway will be performing House of the Rising Sun, made popular by The Animals in 1964.
However, even though Galloway has been chosen as one of the showcase performers, she has her sights set to also be chosen to perform at Honey Jam Barbados.
“I love travelling and it would just be amazing to go to Barbados but to perform there, that’s an entirely new audience … and there’s also going to be a lot of opportunity to collaborate and jam with other musicians from there who are in the Honey Jam Barbados,” Galloway said.
“So that would be really cool and I love learning new instruments so I might be able to learn a traditional instrument from their culture because I also really love other cultures and experiencing those and … I think it would be really cool and it would just be a really awesome opportunity.”
To help Galloway get to Barbados Honey Jam, she asks that people watch, “like”, comment and share on her contest video which can be found at https://youtu.be/AkR9o–RJPk.
However, engagement on Facebook (Madison Galloway Music), Twitter (@madison13music) and Instagram (@madisongallowaymusic) using the hashtags #HoneyJam2016 and #GetMadisonToBarbados would also help her gain traction for a better chance to represent Canada in Barbados.
Galloway is also set to perform at Wreckless Eric in a Riverfest Elora after party on Aug. 20.
“They asked me to play back in March for Ice Jam so that was a lot of fun,” Galloway said. “So they asked me to come back for Riverfest and play at one of the after parties.”
She said one of the most rewarding aspects of performing is being a role model for young girls.
“I think that my age is a really good reason for me to represent Canada in Barbados because it would be more inspiring and relatable to younger girls and they’ll be like ‘hey, I want to do that, I want to go and put myself out there and perform,’” she said. “If they’re an aspiring young artist, have the confidence to put their music out there.”
Galloway will be performing at the Mod Club in Toronto on Aug. 11 at 8pm. Doors open at 7pm. The 19-plus event has an admission of $20. Tickets are available online at Universe.com (search Honey Jam), in person at Play De Record in Toronto or by contacting Galloway at madisongallowaymusic@gmail.com.
