DOMANIQUE LAUNCHES HOLIDAY TELEGRAM CAMPAIGN 

LISTEN TO AIRBRUSH  | WATCH AIRBRUSH (ACOUSTIC)

“You are my November, December, January… my Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years Day... you’re my holiday” - Domanique Grant

TORONTO, ON – December 20, 2021 – It has been a monumental year of accolades, new music, performances, and powerful initiatives for Toronto soul-pop singer, songwriter, producer and director, Domanique Grant. Now, she's celebrating with a song perfect for the season. Today, Domanique shares You're My Holiday - a song for anyone sending joy to a loved-one over the season and beyond - as a timeless, sonic expression of love. Listen to the track here.

On the song, Domanique says: "You're My Holiday is about spreading the gift of love during a holiday season, when it may be needed most. For many who can't be with their loved ones, You're My Holiday celebrates the entire season as a dedication to those separated by space and time."

You're My Holiday is meant to be shared. Domanique launched a campaign on Instagram and TikTok, inviting fans to nominate someone special to receive a live performance telegram to cherish the cheer. Check out Domanique's announcement for more info here.

Last month, Domanique shared an acoustic rendition of her powerful song, Airbrush, with reimagined flair to inspire self love in the whirlwind of internet culture. Domanique's prose amplifies the importance of authenticity on and offline, while encouraging people to think of new inclusive frameworks for all - especially for those who don't see themselves reflected within these spaces.  Take a listen to the acoustic rendition, with revitalized lyrics here and watch Domanique's performance here.

The Airbrush campaign featured a Cosplay series on Instagram, showcasing Domanique's re-creations of Marvel and DC superheroes, in collaboration with Toronto body paint artist, Alchemy Center. As the song champions every shade and gender, Domanique launched the series to inspire new perspectives around gender and beauty norms online. Get a glimpse of Domanique's take on X-Men's Mystique here, and her latest reimagination of Wonder Woman here.

The original version of Airbrush arrived on August 27, and is a bold, tell-it-like-it-is multi-layered take on how colourism, shadeism, gender norms, narcissism, and self-esteem unfold and impact digital culture. Listen to Airbrush here and watch the video here. Domanique partnered with Ensemble and RBCxMusic for the project and launched an intimate in-studio preview of the track you can check out here.  

“The song was written after I experienced being trolled online for my body being too curvy, my hair being too bright and my skin being too dark. I had people who were accusing me of photo shopping my photos because they thought my body was too ‘curvy’, and then on the other side, I had people telling me that I wasn’t enough,” Domanique says. 

Co-produced with Jarrel The Young, one-half of Young Wolf Hatchlings (who has worked with The Weeknd and METZ), Domanique flows with a catchy percussive beat singing “they want to edit, edit me,” challenging and unpacking notions of online ideals around beauty. A vibrant video brings these themes to the forefront with a fun, creative twist. The video was co-directed by Domanique Grant and Alim Z Sabir, with choreography by Leon Blackwood (Arianna Grande, Britney Spears), featuring an all BIPOC cast and set of creatives, in partnership with RBC.  

“Airbrush is a song that explores finding the courage to be yourself online despite what Instagram, TikTok and YouTube culture, dictates," Domanique adds. "I’m not saying that you shouldn’t wear wigs or makeup, what I’m saying is that you need to focus on fitting into your own boxes. I want the song to remind people to be authentic.”

Domanique hasn't slowed down amidst a time of worldwide change. Last year, Domanique’s craft made global headlines through Till We See The Sun, her stunning, uplifting  track that spread joy at the height of the first pandemic lockdown. Since then, she has cultivated a partnership with RBCxMusic, as featured in their Grammy Awards campaign, Fuelling Firsts, which aired during the 2021 awards ceremony broadcast. She delivered presentations, performances and numerous public speaking engagements. Most recently, Domanique performed at the Humber River Heroes benefit concert by the Humber River Hospital Foundation, the Canadian Nurses Foundation Maskerade Gala hosted by etalk's Traci Melchor, and Toronto International Film Festival, opening the screening of the documentary, Listening To Kenny G.

In addition, Domanique produced RBC's The Imagine Summit, supporting artist-entrepreneurs in imagining beyond the limitations of the current global climate, by offering exclusive access to industry leaders, mindfulness training and financial resources.

Stay tuned for more sonic self-love from Domanique as we head into 2022 and learn about Domanique’s incredible career to date below. 

DOWNLOAD - You're My Holiday Artwork 
DOWNLOAD – Press Photo

TikTok: @domaniquegrant

About Domanique Grant
Toronto soul-pop singer, songwriter, producer and director Domanique Grant is working on her next EP (In partnership with RBC), for which she opens up some tough conversations — of worthiness, forgiveness, honesty, notions of beauty, colourism and Internet culture.
 
This new chapter already contains achievements that include a beautiful start-of-the-pandemic song Till We See The Sun that went viral and ended up on over 10 international news networks at the start of 2020,  a TEDx Talk, prominent sync placements with L’Oreal Paris and Unilever, performing at the closing ceremony of the Toronto Pan American Games; for then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the 50^th anniversary of Youth Employment Services (YES); for a women’s empowerment and gender equality event in Canada for the United Nations (UN); in front of 40,000 people in Uganda for World AIDS Day, as well as earning a coveted top 20 spot in the SOCAN Foundation’s TD Incubator for Creative Entrepreneurship.
 
During the pandemic, she made some hard personal decisions and realizations. She stepped up — not for anyone else but herself. “I am learning who I want to be as this version of Domanique, stepping into my crown, writing music that’s authentic to me, exploring who I am as a woman of colour in music and what that means. I’m not afraid to say what I want to say; I used to be scared of that narrative.”
 
The first single/video, the electro-snap pop song, Airbrush — co-produced with Jarrel The Young, one-half of Young Wolf Hatchlings (The Weeknd, METZ) — is a bold, tell-it-like-it-is multi-layered lyric on shadeism/colourism, gender norms, narcissism and self-esteem in the digital culture.  “They want to Photoshop me / Make me the American Dream,” she sings.

“Airbrush is a song that explores finding the courage to be yourself online despite what Instagram, TikTok and YouTube culture, dictates. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t wear wigs or makeup, what I’m saying is that you need to focus on fitting into your own boxes. I want the song to remind people to be authentic.”

You would never guess she had these feelings based on her considerable accomplishments in her youth. As a kid, her story was included in a Dora Award-winning theatre production Grace Project Sick by famed playwright Judith Thompson and by 17 she was writing scripts and music for local theatre companies herself. She also became a motivational speaker who toured Uganda and Canada and by 20 had lived in East Africa and South America.
 
After settling back in Toronto to pursue music, she released her debut EP, Playhouse, in 2018, which opened many doors.  
 
When covid hit in March 2020, in a span of 24 hours, all of her shows got cancelled, including a European tour and major dates in Canada. Miserable, the normally bubbly personality was convinced by her mom to snap out of it and go write a song!  Till We See The Sun flowed out in two hours.  Marc Koecher produced it, and arts organization Jamii Esplanade asked her to sing it on their newly-built cart “to help improve mental health for our neighbours in social isolation.” The video was then posted to YouTube (Today, it’s still emotional (you might shed some tears watching the video).
 
“I woke up the next day and a lot of things changed,” Domanique says. “I had coverage on 10 international news networks; the song was played everywhere from Virgin to Kiss, and brands started reaching out.  I was featured in campaigns by L’Oréal Paris and Unilever, and RBC reached out and said they wanted to help me make an album. That led to one of my dreams, as close as I have come to this day to the Grammys —I appeared in an ad campaign for emerging Canadian artists during the commercial break.

“So that began my new journey. We can be disempowered by hard moments, but just keep pushing through and leaning on our art.”
 
As she readies her next EP, a new song and video will be released every month or two, featuring a self-directed video, until they all are produced into a short film.