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NEFE returns to Guelph to inspire youth at Empowerment Day

May 7, 2018

GUELPH, Ontario – Her voice has been described as one that can silence a room, and nowhere was that more evident than at the Sleeman Centre last week.

NEFE, born Sarah Jean Felker, is a singer-songwriter from Guelph, Ontario. On Thursday May 4, she was one of the musical guests who performed at the UGDSB’s Empowerment Day in front of 5,000 students in grades 5 to 8.

NEFE is a UGDSB grad, attending both Willow Road Public School and Guelph CVI. She now lives in Toronto and is making a name for herself in the vibrant music community there, but it was in school in Guelph where she first cut her teeth in music.

Singer-songwriter NEFE performs at Empowerment Day 2018.

NEFE credits a teacher of hers from Willow Road as influencing her to start exploring music. She had a guitar at home, but didn’t know how to play it. NEFE says her teacher taught her to play the guitar and encouraged her in the school to learn more about music and work on her craft.

Since graduating from GCVI in 2010, NEFE has been making a name for herself in the Canadian music industry on her own terms. Her name, NEFE, comes from Queen Nefertiti and is inspired by the drive to empower others to accept their real beauty and to not succumb to the pressure of ‘perfection’ defined by external forces like today’s media culture.

She moved to Toronto to write music and work with a producer. In 2014, she won the RBC Emerging Artist Music Mentorship Prize, chosen out of a pool of 200 talented musicians from across the country. She was also the subject of a documentary called Better Day: The Sarah J. Felker Story, which documented her life over the course of three years, playing concerts, navigating the music industry, and travelling to Jamaica to find her father.

In 2017, NEFE released her debut EP Mama, produced by Taylor Kirk of Timber Timbre at Montreal’s Hotel2Tango studios. 

At Empowerment Day, NEFE’s voice rung out as students waved lights in the darkness. She said performing in front of youth is one of her favourite types of shows, remembering how inspired she was when seeing performers at a young age.

“It’s important to let kids know that they have incredible power,” she said. “They can change the world.”

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