Meet Sanniyah Antoinette

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sanniyah Antoinette . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sanniyah below.

Sanniyah, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Developing confidence and self-esteem didn’t really begin for me until I graduated high-school and went to college if I’m being 100% honest. In high-school I was labeled as the weird POC girl who dyed their hair multiple different colors, and wore flower crowns + shoe strings as headbands. I was still trying to get an understanding on my personality and who I was. On top of that, being bullied for being out of the “normal” and 5’10 didn’t really help with my confidence. It wasn’t until I made the full realization that I wanted music in my life that I realized it doesn’t matter what other people thought of me.

Not many people know this about me, but I use to have fake profiles I would go on just to talk to people and feel “normal”. I felt like I wasn’t able to be myself because of that other people might think, and I’m so glad that older me isn’t in the same mindset.

Music was my outlet to escape the judgement of the people around me. Whenever I listened to music and went to concerts it just felt right. The people I’ve met at music events really helped me with my confidence because they were just like me. They had a love for music, unusual color combinations, and artistic beliefs.

When I went to college for Music Business, Technology, and Entrepreneurship: it really helped me fully lock into who I am and what I want to be. I developed my own sense of style, had my own friend group, made the type of music I wanted to make, and made decisions solely based on how I wanted my life to go. Part of gaining the confidence is believing that you’re the main character and manifesting the life that you want, and if you do everything genuinely, 9/10 it comes back to you tenfold.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is Sanniyah Antoinette and I’m from Philadelphia, PA! I’ve always had a love for music since I was a little girl banging on pots and pans with my sister making dance routines in the living room. Growing up, I would watch MTV Music Videos with the dream of being one of the stars in my own Music Video. Young Sanniyah knew that would be bucket list item, and from there the rest was history.

After graduating The University of the Arts in Philadelphia (MBET Program) alongside being a student ( then a volunteer teacher) at School of Rock Philadelphia, I’ve made the big move to Los Angeles, CA at age 21 in 2021 on my own.

From then, I’ve worked for Dior, Fendi x Kim Kardashian (Skims), and Chanel Full-Time. After rebranding from Alternative Pop, I released my debut single “ Pretty Little Lies” without promotion to gauge the reaction in 2021. With that single, I was able to book multiple shows around LA and perform cover songs at events to get more exposure.

In 2023 I’ve released 3 songs: Get 2 U, Because I Can, Handsome: All racking over thousands of organic streams. The next song I’m releasing will drop on December 22nd called “ Cold”! Debuting with the release will be my first ever professional Music Video shot in DTLA!

Alongside making music and performing live shows, I also Model for other well known celebrities for music videos. I was a featured Background Model for Doja Cat’s “Attention” and a Featured Model for Damian Lillard’s “ Paid In Full”. I’ve also helped alongside Arriack and Pizza Hut building The Worlds Largest Pizza scoring a name in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Ontop of modeling I also do influencing across multiple social media platforms. Some of the brands I’ve worked with include: Hot Topic, Spensers, Lounge Underwear, Sephora, Ulta, Kiss, Urban Decay, Milk Makeup, Maxell, Mason Margiela, Fashion Nova, Lamoda, and many more.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three skills that was crucial to my success is consistency, mental health awareness, and creativity!

Having consistency is very important when you’re first starting out. Not only does it show people that you are motivated and determined on setting the bar, but it also helps gain momentum algorithmically so your content gets pushed out to more people ( even though I believe social media these days is dying haha).

Mental Health Awareness is my biggest attribute when it comes to being an artist of any kind. You HAVE to make sure you’re taking care of yourself and your mindset. Don’t compare yourself to others, don’t think that you have to work every single day of your life to be successful ( it’s okay to take breaks), and make sure you aren’t too focused on the end goal. Enjoy the little moments that go by! Enjoy the process.

Being creative is the funnest aspect of being an artist! You get to develop your career and who YOU are! You get to showcase your strongest attributes in YOUR art! You have the chance to be original and think of new ideas in a world that’s so competitive and similar. It’s so fun to think of new concepts and stand out. Remember: you are the main character after all!

My biggest advice I want to give people is to have FUN. Don’t worry about how many streams you get, who shares it, who likes it, who hates it, etc. you should be doing your craft because it makes you happy. The right people will love who you are and follow you in your journey, don’t try to mold yourself into someone you aren’t.

Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
My mom is my biggest cheerleader and I owe so much of my success to her. She supported me moving to LA ( even through she was hurt to see me leave at first), she was and is there for me when I need to vent, she gives me new ideas to try, and she always picks me up and believes in me.

Ever since I was a little girl she knew I was going to be a star, and she would always tell me that. I remember singing Purple Rain when I was 15 years old at a showcase, and looking over at my family singing back with me with tears of joy in their eyes. From that moment on I knew I wanted to bring people that feeling on a bigger scale, and my mother was one of the main people allowing and rooting for me to do so. Shoutout of all of the supportive mothers out there!

Contact Info:

Image Credits
@NikHampshire

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