Kashy Keegan

Early life and career beginnings

Keegan was born Matthew Kashy Keegan on 18 July 1983 in Worthing, West Sussex, England.^[3] He began his musical journey with piano lessons at the age of seven, going on to write his first song at the age of 10.^[4] Keegan cites early classic pop music such as that by George Michael and Elton John as being some of his earliest musical influences. He said his favourite album is Tracy Chapman by Tracy Chapman because of its socially conscious lyrics.^[5] His story is one of perseverance. As a teenager he worked any odd job to afford time in a recording studio. He spent 15 years recording demos of his songs and knocking on doors trying to get a break in the music industry. Prior to signing his first record deal in 2014, Keegan released two albums independently Kashy Keegan and Looking In.^[6][7][8]

2012–15: This Is My Dream

Keegan wrote This Is My Dream in 2007.^[9] The song was first used as a 2012 London Olympics motivational song^[10][11] and was later discovered by a music supervisor who works for Hong Kong Television (HKTV) after Keegan had uploaded the song to the website ReverbNation.^[12] Following this he was contacted by Universal Music who signed a one-song contract with him.^[13] HKTV chose the song as the theme music for a documentary series called The Challenge (Chinese: 挑戰). But this was before the network had been granted a broadcast license.^[14]

In October 2013 the news was announced that HKTV's application for a broadcast licence had been rejected.^[15] This triggered a series of public protests attended by tens of thousands of people for which Keegan's song became the unofficial soundtrack.^[16] Keegan flew to Hong Kong in support of HKTV and on 25 October 2013 an estimated audience of 30,000 watched him perform his song "This is My Dream".^[17] The song reached the number 1 position on the Hong Kong iTunes chart outselling major international artists like Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Justin Bieber.^[18][19] The following year Keegan flew to Beijing and competed in the MTV Asia Aloft Star competition where "This Is My Dream" came second overall.^[20]

In early 2014 he relocated from London to Hong Kong to pursue his music career full time.^[21][22] He eventually signed to Hong Kong based record label Evosound in May 2014 and released an album This Is My Dream on 1 December 2014.^[23]

2016: Inner Song

18 March 2016 saw the release of Keegan's fourth studio album Inner Song.^[24] He wrote and produced each of the album’s eleven songs and explained more about some of the inspirations behind the album to Blasting News: "The past two years have been a crazy time for me – moving to the other side of the world and having a number one song. There have been so many highs and lows and sources of inspiration and I'm really looking forward to sharing the new music. I decided to call the album Inner Song because these songs are my account of all the changes from the inside out."^[25]

2016: Debut song in Chinese 堅守我的夢

In November 2016, Keegan released a version of his self-penned song ‘This Is My Dream’ in Mandarin. Originally recorded in English and a chart topper in Hong Kong, the Mandarin version took the title (堅守我的夢) and was released under his Chinese name 祈家恆 through Hong Kong record label Evosound. An official music video was posted on Keegan's VEVO channel. The release made Keegan one of the first British artists to ever release their own original song in Mandarin. With its uplifting melody and empowering lyrics, (堅守我的夢) tells the story of fighting to keep your dream alive against all the odds. It’s a song, Keegan says, that was written from his own experiences of fighting to be heard in the music industry.^[26]

Albums

• "Kashy Keegan" (2007)
• "Looking In" (2011)
• "This Is My Dream" (2014)
• "Inner Song" (2016)
• "堅守我的夢" (2016)