Lani was born and raised in South East Melbourne, Australia. Her Mother, who is from Seychelles, and Father, Sister and Brother who are from Mauritius, all lived together in a community where many Creole residents resided from overseas. Lani’s Creole culture was a big part of her life growing up. Her Father, being a musician himself, is a lead guitarist in a popular Creole band, which Lani many times performed with as a child.
As a child, Lani was very shy and timid. However, when it came to performing, she would light up. She participated in a dance school at 5 years old taking up ballet, jazz, tap, contemporary, hip-hop, song and dance and drama classes. She was even apart of one of the first Sega dancing group in Melbourne which allowed her to perform at many events representing Seychelles.
Lani’s love for singing came from her Father. She would perform a long side with him at his gigs and as a soloist. From a very young age, Lani knew this was a something she would love to pursue.
Come to high school, at 13 years old, Lani’s dream of singing started to come down as reality started to sink in of the chances of her becoming a singer was near impossible. After trying out for many Talent Shows within her own school and getting rejected, Lani’s confidence really took a hit. She began to question whether she was good enough to pursue music.
From here, Lani decided to switch from being in front of the camera to behind the scenes. Her interest in filmmaking started to grow as she discovered a hidden talent and love she had for Film Editing. When Lani graduated high school in 2007, she went on to study Filmmaking. In 2008 Lani also met a young man named Jarryd through friends who she started dating as they became inseparable.
One of her biggest accomplishments throughout film school was one of her short films being nominated for Best Actress in a film festival in Sydney and another one of her short film ‘Silent Cry’ winning an award at Monash Youth Film Festival.
After Lani graduated in 2010 with a Bachelor Degree in Screen Production, she ventured into many industries. Film, photography, make-up artistry and Zumba dance. She did whatever she could to keep herself busy within the creative fields. However, even after years of study and qualifications in film, photography, makeup and dance, Lani could not help but find herself come back to music. Without even knowing a thing about the industry, the only thing Lani knew was that her heart was leading her towards music and she had to do something about it.
Lani began to question herself as to why she turned away from music in the first place. The answer was she did not think she could sing. At 21 years old, Lani decided to go back to her old singing teacher, Tania G, from David Jaanz School of Singing and started lessons again. From there, her confidence began to grow as she re learned singing techniques and started to develop her sound as an artist.
In 2013, Lani and Jarryd got married at the young age of 23. At their wedding, Lani decided to conquer one of her biggest fears, which was singing in front of Jarryd. Lani was never able to sing in front of Jarryd because his thoughts and judgement meant the most to her. It was easier to sing in front of a crowd of people she didn’t know then Jarryd himself. At their Wedding, Lani built up the courage and sang him a song at their reception. It was a one of the most heartfelt moments, which allowed Lani to open up to singing again and Jarryd, became one of her biggest supports.
A huge revelation to Lani’s sound originally came from the artist ‘Marina’ (formally known as ‘Marina and the Diamonds’). The first time she heard Marina on the radio, the uniqueness of her voice was so magical and different to which Lani could identify with. This gave Lani inspiration and even more self-assurance to believe in herself.
Confidence started to rise for Lani as she now knew who she was and was ready to tackle this industry. Lani started writing songs, recording in a home studio and making YouTube videos of her music and covers. In 2014, Lani released her first 4 track EP titled ‘Heat of the Night’. The EP was launched in Melbourne City with a band and backup dancers all organised by herself which was a huge success. This would be one of the highlights in her career as it was the launch and beginning of ‘Lani’.
In 2016, Lani started working with an independent record label where she recorded multiple songs and music videos. Lani was excited she was able to share her creative energy and passion for music with a team of people in comparison to working independently for a long period. After the first release, Lani kept finding herself in a position where she had to keep pushing for her music to be released, which started to become very disheartening. 4 years of her life was spent in good faith hoping something would amount but unfortunately, nothing came about.
In January 2019, Lani gave birth to her first child, Zion. Becoming a mum really put everything into perspective where it came to her values and music. With Zion only being a newborn, she made a difficult decision to go back out on her own independently and essentially start from scratch. The thought of taking this step was very daunting, scary and made Lani very anxious. As well as being a new mum, it would have been all too easy to give up which Lani came close to. She took a step back and just decided to start writing again.
One day, Lani was on the play mat with Zion, a notepad and pen. She wrote down the words, ‘My Light’ which the song started coming about. As she was singing this song, Zion would smile and laugh. She use this as an indication that this is the song she had to get made.
That September she recorded this song with featured artist ‘Sazzy Alile’. The song was released and launched in November at the Jamaican Music and Food Festival Pre Party and was accompanied by The Push Reggae Band. At this event, Lani met many people in the music industry including DJ Ragz, Producer Pat Barallon, Masia One and many more. This started to open many doors for Lani as ‘My Light’ started to become popular within the Reggae community. In December, Lani filmed and released the music video for ‘My Light’. This helped promote her song for radio play around the world and airplay of the music video in Africa where they have warmly welcomed her and many fans started to arise.
From the success of ‘My Light’, Lani started getting approached for opportunities. She did radio interviews and gigs around Melbourne and started getting herself well known within the music industry. In March 2020, Mercy Entertainment, a record label in USA, approached Lani. Lani could hardly believe within a year she went from the fear and unknowing of her music career future of starting all over again, to now being signed to a music label who believes in her talent and wants to work with her to make her dreams come true. She signed the contract happily and is now working with a great team of people that are helping to push her music in the right direction.
Lani is now in the best creative space she ever been in to date. She is in the midst of creating an EP with Mercy Entertainment, which is set to be released in partnership with Sony Music. Her 8 track EP contains songs with featured artists included King Kiuh, Yami J and DJ Wade. This exciting, Afrobeat, Reggae/ Pop inspired EP is titled after her son ‘Zion’ who is the main inspiration of her continuing her passion for music and not giving up.
With many obstacles and hurdles Lani has been through which she came close to giving up multiple times, Lani kept on going. Her optimism, positivity and hopefulness is something that is embedded in all her songs, which she wants to share with the world. Lani cannot wait to show the world her new sound and take the world stage as Zion’ EP is set to be released early 2021.