Malea McGuinness Turns Opera Training Into Pop Success

Malea McGuinness, a talented pop/rock singer/songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA, has won the SingerUniverse “Best Vocalist Of The Month” Competition for January, for her song “Memories.” This song is included on McGuinness' second album, Close As Air, which she released independently in April 2010. McGuinness was born in Fort Hood, Texas, and then she moved with her grandparents to Long Island, NY (her father served in the Green Beret armed forces). She learned to play guitar and piano, and she was inspired by listening to such favorite artists as the Beatles, Sting and Linda Ronstadt. For college, McGuinness attended the Manhattan School of Music, where she majored in Vocal Performance (classical & opera). [Source]

Born in Ft. Hood, TX, the exotic beauty is the daughter of an Irish Green Beret Father and a Korean Mother she barely got to know. Malea spent two and a half years in Seoul, Korea with relatives. Then at the age of five she was sent to live with her father’s father and stepmother on Long Island, where she was severely restricted in her access to pop culture, such as rock music, tv, and movies. After attending prestigious music programs at Tanglewood, Oberlin Conservatory and the Chautauqua Institution, MALEA went on to pursue singing opera at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, then landed a featured role in the Broadway revival of The King and I. But there was something missing. [Source]