Damarea

Damarea Ogbuewu (/duh:mar"ree;yuh 'oh bway woo; born August 8,2005), professionally known as Damarea is a Nigerian-American singer,songwriter, and author. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, Damarea began her career in the 2018 writing competition Speak Out!, and rose to prominence for her poetry piece, Still I Rise, and her role as the title character in the musical version of the Ghanaian Broadway play, Anowa. In 2019, Damarea won gold in her second round of the Speak Out! with her song/rap piece, I Will Still Rise. After she grew interested in pursing a music career, she recorded song covers on YouTube, and eventually independently released her own songs. She released her debut song,"Set it On Fire"

Damarea Ogbuewu was born on August 8,2005 in Columbia, South Carolina. She is the eldest daughter of a Nigerian father and a mother of British, Hispanic, and Asian ethnic background. Ogbuewu is of Nigerian descent from her father, and refers to herself a Nigerian-American of Igbo descent. With this ethnic background, Damarea speaks four languages with one not fluently spoken.

As a child, Damarea performed in primary school plays playing her first role as Phiona in Queen of Katwe. She has also performed in the musical versions of Romeo an Juliet and Elf as Juliet and Mary. She made her first TV appearance singing "The Star Spangled Banner" for the Carolina Firelies at the age of 12. She attended Pine Grove Primary School.

At the age of thirteen, Damarea became serious about pursuing a music career though she still concentrated on theater and school. In 2018, Damarea began writing short stories, in which she was nominated for the South Carolina Young Children's Book Award. In March of 2019, had announced the idea of her new book, Act Like a Classy Lady; Know Your Worth, which was a self-help guide for women. She won bronze with the position of third place in the Speak Out! National Competition after the performance of her song piece, Still I Rise which was a poem which spoke against bullying. In May of 2019, Damarea performed her song-piece I Will Still Rise, winning gold. Radio personality Beasy Baybie promoted her piece which allowed her to perform it again at an Anti-Bullying Statewide walkout.

Damarea received quite a few accolades within her performing arts career, including an Children's Art Award (in which her primary school art became a permanent piece in the South Carolina Children's Gallery), two Speak Out! awards, and one Talent One Nomination. With these accomplishments, she has been dubbed "The Voice of Her Generation", after speaking out against abortion, bullying, and teen-suicide. In October of 2019, Damarea was invited to perform at an International Women's Day Event in which Damarea sang the 2012, "Girl on Fire" by Alicia Keys.

On March 5, 2020, Damarea was invited to perform the 2015 hit song, "Love Myself" at an International Women's Day event, but kindly declined after the outbreak of the Corona virus pandemic.

The key to Damarea's performance is how easily she seemed to reach the top of her three-octave range. She also possesses a vocal range of a D3- A5 and Light-Soprano (3 notes 3 octaves and a semi-tone) voice type.

Damarea started her high school education at Dutch Fork High School, which later became her alma mater in June of 2020.