User:Nicobompadre/sandbox

= Milly Benzu = Milly Benzu (born October 29, 1995) is an African Canadian singer-songwriter born in Kinshasa, Congo. He was primarily Raised in Montreal, Canada. He is most notable for being a finalist of The Next Star Season 4.

Early Life
Milton Mayenga “Milly” Benzu was born on October 29, 1995 in Kinshasa, Congo. He was named after his father Milton Mayenga. His father Ben Mayenga is an engineer who was raised in Kinshasa, Congo central Africa. His mother, Shungu Owango is a nurse. Benzu has two siblings a younger brother named Ayden and a younger sister named Casey.

Benzu spent the early years of his life in across Canada. Benzu moved a lot, he lived in Vancouver and Edmonton and Montreal and Ottawa. At Age 5, Benzu started to show early interest in music and performed at many

His parents moved around across Canada frequently. He attended Heritage Regional High school and was in a sports excellence program. Benzu did many sports in Highschool including high jump, basketball and volleyball. He was very good athlete.

Career
In May 2011, Milly Benzu auditioned for a popular Canadian tv show called “YTV’s The Next Star”  The reason why he decided to audition for this tv show was because he wanted to exposure. Milly Benzu made the top 6 alongside Charlie Storwick, JD Meeboer, April Llave, Parker Schimdit, Shania Filmore.

During the whole season Milly Benzu performed 12 songs every week infront of a live studio audience. Milly Benzu performed many covers on the series, one of the first songs he performed was “With You” By Chris Brown. Every week there was a different theme, themes like Motown week, Rock and Roll Week. “My favorite week of all time was Motown week because I got to sing a Stevie Wonder song, I’ve looked up to him all my life and he is incredible artist and has inspired me in so many ways.

Towards the end of the season, Benzu had shot a music video for his debut single called “If You Were Mine” he co-wrote the song with SA Track Works a production company based out of Vancouver. If you were mine was distributed by Warner Music Canada. Benzu was also apart of a group music video which featured all the top 6 finalists, the song was called “Turn It Up Up Up” which was written by Jasmine Denham.

Unfortunately Benzu did not win “YTV’s The Next Star”, “It was a really hard thing that i had to go through but it made me a stronger person, and fuelled me to pursue my dreams even more”

In 2014 Benzu signed an Independent record deal with Five on Four Records, since then he is currently in production on his debut EP with the Lost Boys Productions. He has released two singles off his EP. The first single off his Ep was called “Someone Like You” and his second single released “Crazy Lovin Fool”

Personal Life
Benzu is currently studying Communications at The University Of Ottawa. “I’m trying to get my degree, I think education is a strong asset to have"