If there’s one thing Canadian born Victoria Levy knows, it’s her passion to sing and perform. Since a very young age she has been compelled to express everything through music. You always knew where to find her. All you had to do was make your way to Victoria Avenue in the beautiful hills of Montreal, Canada – and listen. You’d definitely hear it. Whether it was early morning, lunch break from school, or late into the night, you would hear Victoria at the piano in the basement of her family’s three-story brick house. And if a song was being played on the radio, (or on the stereo of one of her three older sisters), you could be sure that she had already learned every chord and every word.
A local voice teacher heard Victoria’s natural talent and immediately wanted to take her under her wing and train her for a career in opera. Victoria already knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. She definitely wanted to be a singer but it was gonna be much more Mick Jagger than Kathleen Battle.
At age nine, Victoria got her start with prominent Canadian music producer Bob Hahn who got wind of this talented girls’ voice and brought into the studio to record the jingle for a national shoe company. Victoria was hooked.
Her appetite for music kept growing and expanding as she learned to play the flute in high school and studying and performing at the renown Jeunesses musicales of Canada under the direction of the world-famous flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal.
Victoria’s love of performing grew as well, and she began acting stints on several TV shows, as well as her first feature film “Joshua Then & Now” adapted from the best-selling novel by Mordecai Richler.
Following her high school musical years, she moved into the now famous (or infamous depending who you talk to) No. 7 Burton in Montreal, Canada – the home of a syndicated radio show spotlighting famous musicians, produced by Martin Melhuish (writer, author, music journalist) and iconic CHOM-FM DJ Doug Pringle (Director of Programming, Rawlco Communications Ltd.). Many well known music figures filed through the doors of 7 Burton, including Simon Fuller (creator of American Idol, Spice Girls) who spent a few months living there while recording one of his early English projects The Teanbeats. Victoria sang on several recordings with the band during their stay.
Singing in the studio lead to invitations to be in bands performing in Montreal’s vibrant local club scene. She was performing in clubs before she was “legal” to be in them. Her talent was unmistakable and the original vocal band Sweet Thunder, along with Sass Jordan (Juno Award recording artist, Judge-Canadian Idol), was the starting place for Victoria to bring all of her musical talents to bare – writing original material to feature the lush vocal talents of the group and adding flute to the band arrangements. Sweet Thunder even caught the ears of legendary producer Phil Ramone, who took the band into the studio to record.
Soon after, Montreal music legends The Pinups, recruited Victoria to sing, and play both keyboards and guitar. The Pinups were wildly successful in Canada touring the country to crazed fans and critical acclaim and continued for several years until the time came for the members to pursue solo careers.
Word of Victoria’s talents spread through Canada and the Toronto-based, Juno Award winning band Parachute Club enticed her to move south to join the group. Other area musicians discovered her unique vocal style and she began performing live with the likes of David Foster, Jane Siberry, Carol Pope, and many others, as well as continuing to thrive in the studio.
Recording artist Maggie Kortchmar kept hearing about this talented Canadian girl and invited Victoria to Los Angeles to sing with her on her recording project “Pictures Of Doreen” helmed by producer Jimmy Iovine.
If there is one thing Los Angeles knows, it’s talent. The word was out that this fresh new singer was in town and fellow Canadian and French recording artist Roch Voisine invited Victoria to sing on his first all English album “Kissing Rain” which he recorded in LA.
Soon Victoria was recording on John Prine’s Grammy-nominated “Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings” (with the late great Howie Epstein of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers as producer), adding her vocals to Rita Coolidge’s “Behind The Memories”, as well as Billboard’s #1 International Album “Live At The Roxy” with French superstar Michel Polnareff.
The legendary Diana Ross brought Victoria in to contribute vocals on her album “Everyday Is A New Day” and “Bitch” songwriter Meredith Brooks asked Victoria to be the only other vocalist to appear on her debut album “Blurring The Edges”. She also appears in the video for the worldwide hit single and performed live with Brooks.
It’s every girls dream to be Barbie, but how many can ever say they achieve that goal. Well, Victoria actually can! Mattel cast Victoria as the glamorous international icon herself for the Sony Wonder release “Barbie: Beyond Pink”. With producer/songwriter Ralph Schuckett (Pokemon, Sophie B. Hawkins, Belinda Carlisle, Todd Rundgren), at the helm, Victoria brought Barbie to life with a variety of great songs penned by Ralph Schuckett, Ellen Shipley, Stephen Bray, Eric Kaz and Christopher Ward.
Hollywood is a town known for the movies, and great movie music. Victoria continues to write and perform music for films, including Academy Award® Nominee ROCK THE BOAT (HBO Pictures), MR. FIX-IT (First Look International), AMERICAN BLEND, (White Stripes), SOULKEEPER (First Look International), POSIE PAINTS (Syndicated TV), THE SCREAM HEARD AROUND THE WORLD (Bravo/Trio), NICK FRENO: LICENSED TEACHER (Warner Bros.), THE POWER WITHIN and EMPIRE RECORDS (New Line Cinema).
Victoria’s studio recording brings her in touch with wildly varied and always fun music, film, and voiceover projects. Her French roots recently came in handy with writer Jay Landers and writer/producer Marco Marinangeli’s RADIO DISNEY POP DREAMERS, as well as an international ad campaign for IBM and commercials for every conceivable brand and product continue to demand Victoria’s unique vocal talents.
Live performance is also a huge part of Victoria’s life, and since 2002 she has been a featured performer in the “rock concert meets silent film” hit show VOX LUMIERE. Vox Lumiere’s new and radically unique live performance combining music, film and theatre has performed around the world and continues to command standing ovations as well as critical acclaim. She is also a producer on their PBS special Vox Lumiere-The Hunchback of Notre Dame. You can see and hear Victoria in Vox Lumiere at www.voxlumiere.com.
So, it’s actually still pretty easy to find Victoria. Just look into most any recording studio or stage near you.
