International singing group the Melisizwe Brothers has provided some much needed assistance to a local sports academy here.
Last Monday the Kenville Horne Sports Academy (KHSA), based in the community of Rose Hall became the beneficiary of a donation of footballs thanks to the Melisizwe Brothers Goldmind initiative. The Gold mind programs are aim to empower others to find and develop their gifts/talents, then pay it forward to help others find and develop theirs as well.
The international singing group consisting of three brothers; Marc (17), Seth (14) and Zacary (13) who, despite their age, are already classically trained multi-talented musicians. They are managed by parents Mark and Sherry James. The Kenville Horne Sports Academy is non-profit sports based program that has been operating for over 10 years in Rose Hall, catering to at risked and disadvantage youths between the age of 5 and 17 in the community.
Kenville Horne, Director/Founder of the Kenville Horne Sports Academy said that the program face some challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic which including limited avenue for fundraising funds. He said that he spend a lot of time seeking opportunities for the development of the program and he is happy how things are progressing. “I spoke with Mark and other representative from the Melisizwe Brothers.
We are entering a partnership that is going to bear fruits, one which can see players from the academy going beyond these shores to play sports and advance their education,” said Horne.
The Director said that the Melisizwe Brothers signifies gold and he is happy that his program is benefitting from their generosity.” We have our long term goal and short term goal and when I spoke with their representatives, I indentified that immediately we wanted more footballs to ensure that the training sessions are more effected,” said Horne, who noted that he was very grateful for the “gracious and timely” donation. He also expressed thanks to his team as well as Sam Browne for their patience and support.
Sam Browne a representative for Melisizwe Brothers said that they have seen the hard work that Horne is putting in to help the community and the Melisizwe Brothers are very happy to support the worthwhile cause. He said that the Melisizwe Brothers use the revenue from their youtube channel to support youth-based organizations all over the world. The Melisizwe Brothers also attended the Petersville Primary School and the St. Martins Secondary School.
The singing group recently donated musical instruments to the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force youth band and more persons and entities in SVG are expected to benefit from the Gold Mind programs.
Kerisha St. Hillaire Secretary/Director of the Kenville Horne Sports Academy expressed thanks the on behalf of the academy. She said that Melisizwe Brothers donation demonstrate that despite the group fame and success they are concern about the direction of our youth and nation. “We are going to put the assistance to good use,” she promised.
Jayshawn Louie, a player from the KHSA was also on hand to witness the presentation. He said that as a player he was very happy to see that “we are receiving more footballs”. It’s going to make practice better for us and we are going to put them to good use,” said Louie.
The Melisizwe Brothers shot to stardom in 2015 after their covers of Steve Wonder “ Overjoyed” , Whitney Houston “ I look to you”, Michael Jackson “ Ben” and other Motown covers that were posted on their face book account . In December 2016 the group posted a cover of the Jackson 5 single “I’ll be there” and the video went viral, racking up over 50 million views worldwide. It currently has over 2.2 million views on YouTube. So impressive were the brothers that they were invited to appear on the popular Ellen DeGeneres show.
The Melisizwe Brothers popularity continued to grow so much so they were proclaimed winners of the amateur section of Showtime at the Apollo by impressing the audience as well as host, comedian and TV personality Steve Harvey. They also made another appearance on the Steve Harvey show in 2018 to perform the classic Christmas song “ O Holy Night”. Among the other international appearance that the brothers have made includes, performing at Time Square, an appearance on Little Big Shots UK, America gots Talent, lead vocals of the Netflix series “Motown Magic”,
The international group also secured a cash prize of US$ 250,000 and a recording contract with Republic Records after winning the last version of Nickelodeon competition show, America’s Most Musical Family.