Shalliney Oliva. This is a name to remember. The 14-year-old student of St. Ignatius High School is the first Belizean to ever secure an audition on the highly competitive America’s Got Talent (AGT) show. Her story is inspiring a nation – and breathing new life into an arid and near non existent music industry in Belize.
Her father, Luis Oliva, told Cayo based journalist, Elihu Yacab, that they discovered her hidden talent in an karaoke session for the adults that the much younger Shalliney was nagging to get into. He said they eventually gave her the mic and the entire room was blown away.
“After that, nobody else wanted to sing,” Luis Oliva said during the interview.
Since then, Shalliney has been gracing Belize with her beautiful, pure, powerful vocals. Performing semi-professionally in Belize for 4 year now at a laundry list of venues – from school assemblies, to basketball games, community events, and even winning a local talent search competition in Cayo. She went on to place 2nd in the national phase of that competition.
Her unparalleled talent has left so many with dropped jaws. It seems the low quality phone videos of her performing sent to the producers of AGT had the same effect.
“We wanted to sent a raw video, done on a normal phone with no extra production,” Luis Oliva said. “This way they can see that what she has is raw talent,” he continued.
He shared that their goal has always been to make it on AGT since discovering her world class voice. They took a shot, and submitted an application in the pool of tens of thousands others across the world trying to get a shot to show their talent on AGT
The AGT team replied surprisingly faster than expected!
The family and support team behind Shalliney were not able to execute that first audition in the short time. They reapplied for a next date and to their surprise, Shalliney was selected, once again, to take part in a virtual audition. This will take place on February 25, 2024.
This is no doubt a proud moment for Belize. Breaking into the the US music industry has been near impossible for Belizean artists. This exposure of will no doubt put eyes and ears on the Jewel.
Breaking Barriers
Shalliney share that her goal is to show Belizeans that sometimes taking the step towards their dreams is the most important part of the journey. Belizean talent is boundless. But any artist across disciplines will tell you that it is the hardest job to have in Belize.
You sing new life into all of us Shalliney! Go shine!
P.S
In case you missed it, Shalliney release what we believe to be her first recording in collaboration with renowned Belizean producer Silas Sabal. Check out that story here.
We’ll leave you with a few backyard performances from young Shalliney. Enjoy
Please support the artist in any way possible by getting in touch with her dad via his Facebook page at Luis Oliva.