Fefe Dobson Biography Home | add famous canadian | edit person

Felicia Lynn Dobson was born on February 28th 1985, in a suburb of Toronto, Canada called Scarborough. Fefe is biracial. Her mother is of Irish and Dutch ancestry, while her father is Jamaican). Fefe has three siblings,two younger brothers they are 13 and 10.And,an older sister who is 28.

Often at school Fefe and her older sister Tanya,(even though her sister is white) were picked on because of her race and skin color. Although her real name is Felicia, she has always been called Fefe. Her father left the family when she was young, and she only saw him periodically. She eventually stopped seeing and talking to him when she turned 13. Her anger is expressed in her song "Unforgiven".

Fefe's mother loved music and Fefe did too, she went to a performing arts community center when she was young, and eventually realized music was her thing. In the fifth grade, she played Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz play at her school. “After that, I felt a spiritual connection with Judy Garland,” she said.

When she was 11, her mother had given her a karaoke machine for her birthday. After she learned how to use the machine, she made a demo tape of 24 songs by such artists as Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and Madonna. She began sending the demo tape to record labels. She was already writing her own songs by this time. Fefe just couldn't understand why she was getting so many rejection letters from all the labels; she really wanted to make it in the music business.

She eventually ended up going to Wexford Collegiate Institute, a high school in Scarborough known for its performing arts program. She still kept looking for a record company that would make a record deal with her. In the year 2000 she was discovered by Jive Records and they signed her immediately. The record label wanted to give her a traditional pop star image. Things weren't going the way she wanted them to go. Fefe wanted more guitar and to include some of her own written songs. Jive rejected the idea, so she got upset and left the record company.

She was so depressed she found herself singing in a Toronto bar at 8:30 in the morning. She was luckier than she thought. It turned out a CEO at The Island Def Jam Music Group was in the bar that very morning. He wanted to sign her right there in the bar. The funny thing is that they signed her up on the wrong lyrics. She sang her song "Stupid Little Love Song" and what the people thought she sang was "Stupid Little Buzz Saw" which they thought was "genius". She met producer Jay Levine through Island Records and they began working on her music. “He just really let me be free. He found something in me that he really thought was special, it was just fate”.

When in the recording studio, she hung up pictures of Kurt Cobain and Judy Garland, to help motivate her sound and commerate her fallen heroes.

Discography

Fefe Dobson (September 12, 2003)
Sunday Love (June 20, 2006)