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Marissa Guzman (US)

Artist
Vocalist, lyricist, producer, live performer and label owner, Marissa Guzman, was raised in the Detroit suburbs with a father who was in the most successful all-white group on Motown Records, Eddie Guzman of Rare Earth. Marissa started going to concerts and singing when she was just a little girl, and the amazing moment when the band would call their kids on stage to help them sing their hit song, "I Just Want To Celebrate," was when Marissa realized she wanted to be a singer. Although it took a few years after college and working in the corporate world to finally realize she had to pursue music wholeheartedly, she had a life changing revelation after a spiritual retreat in 2009 to quit her successful career in marketing to focus on being a musician. Marissa learned how to produce, write, record and release her first album, "Joy Road," and in 2011, her first single from the album, "Time To Go," was remixed by South Africa's famous producer, Black Coffee, and went straight to number one on Traxsource. It also beat Rihanna's "We Found Love" in the South African Top 40 charts. In 2012 the song was nominated for "Remix of the Year" at the SAMAs (South Africa's version of the GRAMMYs), and in 2013 "Time To Go" was part of the album "Africa Rising," which won "Best Dance Album" of the year. 2014 proved to be another successful year for Marissa since her song with Cuebur, "No Doubt," was number one on London's "BBC Radio One Extra" show for two weeks in a row, and was also played on the legendary Pete Tong's radio show. Marissa's story is very similar to Rodriguez in the movie "Searching for Sugarman," except 40 years later: A musician from Detroit who gets famous in South Africa. Ironically, Rodriguez was a neighbor of Eddie Guzman's in Detroit and ran in the same circle. Marissa headlined countless festivals in 2014, with her biggest show being the "Spring Fiesta" in Johannesburg, where she performed in front of 15,000 people who sang along to her songs verbatim. After living in San Francisco for the last 8 years, Marissa decided to move back to her hometown of Detroit to be closer to her family and start working on album number two, to be released on her label Juicy Lucy.
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