At 4-years of age the budding artist Shandar Gray made her first public performance while growing-up in Raymore, a small town in rural Saskatchewan, Canada. Now at twenty one, she has a powerful voice with a 3 octave range, a fearless stage presence, and a Tina Turner like attitude. Shandar has seemingly appeared out of nowhere, but she has been wowing audiences for several years with an extraordinary talent and sassy charisma. The blossoming of Shandar began in the spring of 1999 when she entered and won a country talent contest sponsored by radio station CKRM in Regina - studio time was a portion of the winner’s package. With the success came opportunities to perform at the Calgary Stampede with the Nashville North New Artist Program, the Saskatchewan Big Valley Jamboree (main stage), Edmonton's Klondike Days with Nashville North, Casino Regina and Pile O' Bones Sunday (Regina Exhibition), and the Regina Centre of the Arts New Years' show, "White Nights". In the winter of 1999 she joined the singing and dancing tour group “Saskatchewan Express.” Six months were spent with the group travelling Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and the northern United States. During this almost non-stop touring, with two-shows per day being the norm, she fine-tuned her performance abilities and learned to cause crowds to actively participate in her show. Then Shandar’s life began to change even more. Also as a result of the CKRM Country Talent Contest win earlier that year, she began the recording of the EP “Afraid to Love You”. Three unreleased songs were obtained, and the recording sessions were completed at Touchwood Studios in Regina with Kevin Churko producing and engineering. The CD was released to country stations across Canada with the title track, “Afraid to Love You,” receiving airplay. But, during this recording session, after only hearing her first performance, Kevin Churko asked if she would sing on a project that he had undertaken to prepare for his new job with producer John "Mutt" Lange (as a Pro Tools Programmer and sound designer). “Mutt” is world renowned for creating worldwide hits with/for artists such as Shania Twain, Britney Spears, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Bryan Adams, and Foreigner to name a few. The resulting “demo” from Shandar’s and Kevin’s first efforts, entitled "Gimme Some Mo' ", was released locally to two radio stations (Z99 and Kiss92). Within weeks the song was retired to the hall of fame as a five-time-head-to-head hit phone in champion, beating-out numerous major label artists. The song was then released to C95 FM where it achieved similar popularity. The single eventually reached number 5 in the top 30 countdown and received extensive airplay all over Canada, including CHUM FM in Toronto where it was being spun 25 times a week. "Gimme" also sold a thousand copies in local markets in the first three weeks of release. On the heals of this success, Shandar recorded five more songs with Kevin Churko, with the additional writing and production teaming of his brother Cory (multi-instrumentalist for Shania Twain and programming credits for Britney Spears, The Corrs, and Faith Hill). The new unreleased tracks included “Are You Ready For Me”, which was submitted to a few local FM stations for test play, it quickly found its place in the Top 6 most requested songs of the day. A chance telephone meeting between Shandar’s father and Eric Anderson (manager of EMI artists Breach of Trust) made Eric aware of Shandar. Her father told him of her abilities, but Eric was somewhat sceptical. Immediately following this conversation, Eric began to drive to a meeting while listening to the radio. As if scripted, the announcer came on “And now a brand new song from Shandar Gray, "Are You Ready For Me” – it was the first test play of the single. Eric was amazed by what he heard. A call back to Shandar’s father quickly followed and arrangements to see her perform live were made. The live show he saw was equally powerful. Shandar was f