Students at LaPlace Elementary School got a surprise at their assembly today.
After receiving a grant from VH1 Save the Music and Toyota to fund a music education program for the school, Santigold stopped by to perform for students before she plays Voodoo Music and Arts Experience this weekend.
Santigold, or Santi White, performed a few songs and even invited students to join her onstage. She finished off her performance with a group of children as her backup dancers.
Students were selected to ask her questions post-performance and she reminisced of when she was their age. Santigold said to the audience she attributes her school’s music program for her youthful beginning in writing music.
“Since I was about 8 or 9-years-old, I always wrote music,” she said.
She’s always gravitated toward music, she said. She began writing raps and poems when she was young, and she dabbled in playing the guitar and producing beats.
Santigold told students she listened to almost every kind of music, from folk to reggae to rock, and each genre influenced her to become a genre-mixing musician today.
“Everything has influenced me musically,” she said.
She wanted to own a record company one day, and she worked in Artists and Repertoire, she said.
While doing this, she felt inspired to create her own album. Despite being rejected, she wrote an entire album herself and got her start as Santigold, the artist said.
“I want to hear songs the way I hear them,” she said.
The school showed off the result of its grant by having students performs their new instruments for guests.
School board member Russ Wise explained this is the first music education program the district has had in years.
Wise met Chiho Feindler, the Grantee and Compliance Manager for VH1 Save The Music at a national school board meeting, and since then, they worked to get the grant.
Feindler said VH1 Save The Music is a nonprofit organization which provides elementary and middle schools with music programs. Toyota sponsored this particular grant, she said.
Kathy Mota, Senior Strategist and Social Innovation for Toyota, said Toyota understands that music education is an important part of a child’s development.
Toyota raised money for the grant through festivals across the nation, from Chicago’s Lollapalooza to Voodoo. Toyota would ask attendees to write what music means to them and post to social media with a hashtag. For each post, Toyota donated one dollar to VH1 Save The Music, she said.