About the Artist
Born in Luxembourg in 1984, Nelly Pereira jumped on a stage for the first time at the tender age of 5. She grew up listening to her idols from the 80’s and 90’s, likeMariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Céline Dion. But, as is often the case, her parents wanted her to focus on her studies and thought that music would be too much of a distraction, so she didn’t really have any support in pursuing her passion.
A very hard worker since a young age, Nelly became a self-taught singer and throughout her teens she performed in several school events, weddings and other types of festive occasions. At the age of 16 she participated in her first ever singing competition, with a version of “Without you”, by Mariah Carey. Naturally, she won that competition.
After that point, she joined a young act called “Les Tentations”, and for two years she performed a mix of theatre, dance and song, including two musical comedies, “Romeo and Juliet” and “Les Elus”. She also wrote one song for “Romeo and Juliet” and two songs for “Les Elus”, which marked the beginning of her songwriting career. She stayed with Les Tentations for some time and participated in many shows, including a performance in Schio, Italy.
Then came the 2004 singing competition in Villerupt, where she came 3rd runner up with « in the arms of the angel » by Sarah MacLachlan.
In 2007 Nelly met Leo Castellano, a piano teacher with a school in Luxembourg. Leo redirects Nelly towards Jazz and Blues, and by 2008 she was performing regular shows in Luxembourg
Then, in 2009, Nelly Pereira meets Chris Zankof, a Bulgarian jazz piano player that ends up accompanying her at the 2009 Luxembourg Jazz Rallye and Fête de la Musique.
In 2010, Nelly is selected to represent Luxembourg at the World Championship of Performing Arts in Los Angeles, where she finishes 2nd runner up in the “open vocal” category, and 3rd runner up in the « jazz/r&b/soul » category.
Upon her return to Luxembourg, Nelly keeps on writing her own songs and meets Remo Cavallini. She joins his band in 2012 and plays a number of shows with the Remo Cavallini blues band, including several shows in Luxembourg and the Greater Region, but also a performance at “Festa Do Avante” in Lisbon. Most notably, she ends up writing and singing 4 songs featured in Remo Cavallini‘s 2014 album, “Self-Control”
She came into the Grund Club in the winter of 2017, at a Valentines Day Show at the Robert Krieps auditorium. She shared the backing vocals with Suzan Brauers that night and delivered an amazing reggae version of You are the storm, I am the boat, a power ballad by Yacke Stein.
One year later, the Grund Club Songwriter Core decided to invite Nelly to join the club also as a songwriter, and her induction show took place in the same Robert Krieps Auditorium on the 21st of February 2018. She presented 3 original songs that night. Her wing-woman was Priscila da Costa, who also happens to be her sister.
Nelly is already scheduled to represent the Grund Club at other events in 2018, and we believe she will become a key contributor to our song catalogue and archive of recordings.
