Katia Cadet

Katia Cadet is a multi-faceted singer-songwriter. Born in Haiti and raised in Montreal, Canada, this cultural melting pot embedded a world culture within her from a young age. As a young girl, Katia would seclude herself in her room, turn on the radio, and escape to a creative imaginary world and start dreaming. She naturally gravitated toward melody driven and catchy tunes, always adding her own harmonies and trying to sound like the artist to which she was listening. Her most treasured gift besides her voice is her ear. Although she doesn’t play any musical instruments, Katia says,” I hear all the chords and every instrument imaginable resonating and creating a dance; just like a puzzle, the whole song suddenly reveals itself to me.” After listening and dissecting Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall album from front to back, at times focusing on chord progression, other times on harmonies and just listening to Michael’s amazing delivery, she knew music was the profession she wanted to pursue. 

“With You”, a Zouk R&B track in French and English produced by Kaysha is the first single of Katia’s upcoming debut album entitled Boundless due out in early February. Her album is Pop; it’s R&B; it’s Afro-Caribbean; it has great commercial appeal and immense crossover potential, and, if you must put it into one genre category, you can call it Pop Urban World. Boundless is an accumulation of carefully crafted musical skills, the sum of her life experiences, and a celebration of Afro rhythms. The vocals are as versatile as the languages and the genres, at times very soft and sweet and other times, soulful and edgy. Katia delivers with great sincerity, credibility, and authenticity. She sings in French, English, Creole, Portuguese and Italian over multi genres such as Zouk. Kompa, Dance Hall, Soca, Neo-Soul, and Roots Rock Reggae, all with a strong R&B fusion. When Katia originally started working on the album, she knew she needed to concentrate on one genre, but inspiration would lead her to write in different styles and languages, giving birth to Boundless. Her goal was to create a timeless classic, and meaningful album to break the language barriers and return to the universal power of the language of music, which she hopes will bridge the gaps between all of us.

This charismatic singer, prolific songwriter, and vocal producer’s first professional encounter in the music industry was with Wyclef Jean. She never dreamed such things as performing with Whitney Houston on the David letterman show, singing along side Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, Macy Gray, Stephen Marley, and Marc Anthony at the Carnegie Hall could be possible. That is also when Katia received her first Grammy nomination for co-writing the song “911” with Wyclef Jean which he performed with Mary J. Blige. However, the strong desire to pursue her dreams as a solo career never faded. She kept writing song after song and maintained a close relationship with her peers. In the meantime, A-list multi-Grammy award winning producer, Salaam Remi reached out to Katia and offered her the opportunity to be featured on his Riddim projects. The songs “Get It Started”, “You Know How” and “Freak Your Body” all made it and received rave reviews on their respective Riddim Compilations. He more recently called upon her to provide the missing French Jazz tune titled “L’amour Une Aventure” to complete the Rush Hour 3 soundtrack which he musically directed. It wasn’t until she met Kevin Myers, head of her label, that she felt a sense of musical rebirth. He offered her a record deal with full creative control, the chance to create an album that would represent the full spectrum of her multi-dimensional background and influences, an album that would represent her.

Katia’s insatiable hunger to learn about different beats, chord structures, and their relation to the dance and feel of the music was engraved deep into her soul. That love brought an interesting collaboration of producers from cultures all around the world. Salaam Remi from America is a multi Grammy winning producer responsible for hits for The Fugees, Nas, Amy Winehouse, and the movie soundtracks for Rush Hour 3, Mike Tyson, and Sex in the City. Kaysha, a self-made, multi-talented individual from Congo, is at the top of his game as a producer and artist. Mark G from Cape Verde is an up and coming monster producer responsible for a legion of Zouk hits and, more recently, for “Be With You” by Kaysha. Robert Aaron from Chile, Wyclef Jean’s former musical director and David Bowie’s former saxophone player, plays a mean sax and understands composition and arrangement in a unique way. Renel Duplessis, a guitarist producer is from Haiti; it is at his studio Booga Basement that the legendary The Score album from the Fugees was recorded. M&N, heavyweight producers from Holland are responsible for many great Zouk hits, and Hugo Pina from Portugal, a producer and popular artist himself, has also contributed to the international flavor of the album.