Country music has strong roots for Crystal Shawanda. She was a natural-born country person, connected to the land and the true stories of common people. Native Americans' lives revolve around music. It is their dance, their history, and a tool for both remembering and forgetting. It is a method to both honor life and lament death.

On the Wikwemikong Native Reservation on Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada, Crystal was born. At age 12, she traveled with her truck driver father on a long journey to the south of the country, making her first trip to Nashville. She authored every song on her debut album, which she recorded in Nashville at the age of 13. She spent the following several years honing her craft, recording three more independent albums, performing sometimes in Nashville, and eventually landing a full-time employment at Nashville's renowned Tootsie's Orchid Lounge on Broadway.

You Can Let Go by Crystal, the fastest-rising single in Canadian BDS history, peaked at number five in Canada and twenty-first in the US. With over 400,000 copies sold, her 2008 album Dawn of a New Day set a record for highest charting Native American album ever on Billboard. Crystal: Living the Dream, a six-part CMT documentary that gave viewers an inside look at Crystal's life in Nashville, was also broadcast there.

On her record label New Sun Records, Crystal released the album Just Like You in April 2012, which includes the single Chains. She performed as a special guest at the presidential inauguration in Washington, DC, in January 2013, and she is on the board of the NIKE N7 Foundation, which supports Aboriginal communities' health and wellness..

How to hire Crystal Shawanda for an event