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As Britain’s biggest girl group The Spice Girls announced they were getting back together again, Sheppey singer Elizmi Haze has revealed she is also putting together a girl group of her own.
Elizmi, who celebrated her 20th birthday last Monday by releasing a new single called LaZy, said: “It’s a new genre, a new year and a new life.”
Since supporting Britain’s soul queen Beverley Knight two years ago, the girl from Warden Bay has completed a performing arts course at Canterbury College, spent a year studying music technology, and is now putting together her own group, Omega.
She has teamed up with 17-year-old Sheppey singers Faith Chawner from Queenborough and Philippines-born Bethany Heron. A fourth member may already be in the pipeline.
The girls met at the end of last year on another project for a rival group but have since struck out on their own.
Elizmi said: “We like pop music but we want to give the group an urban R&B feel to make it a bit different. We are already getting interest from fans in America.”
She has 40,000 followers on Twitter, 9,000 on Facebook and 7,000 on Instagram, and has been working with Kevin Thorpe of Big Jam Studios in Sittingbourne.
He said: “Some people are born to sing. We knew we had met someone just like that when Elizmi walked in. She has an immensely powerful voice that can also drift into soft velvety tones.
“We’re working with her to build an arsenal of big hitting anthems. We’re very excited to see how far she can go once she is ready to unleash.”
Elizmi has already come a long way since making her stage debut as Dorothy in a school production of Wizard of Oz when she was 11 and then called Mia Hayes. She created her new identity by merging her two first names Mia and Elizabeth.
Proud mum Carey from Emerald View recalled: “We didn’t even know she could sing until she performed Somewhere Over the Rainbow in the school play and knocked everyone out.”
Elizmi writes her songs at home in a room with a piano, three guitars, a mixing desk and a PA system. She will be performing in a charity concert to raise funds for Medway Hospital’s Oliver Fisher Special Care Baby Unit in April.
For more details, visit www.elizmi.co.uk