MICHAEL ‘Sparkey’ Drakes, a Guyanese Canadian-based entertainer, is all set to drop his brand-new single called “Pretty Body,” which he described as a “party kind of tune for me.”

Born in Bartica and raised at Ithaca, Berbice, Sparkey migrated in 1997 to Antigua and Barbuda and later again, in 2013, to Toronto, Canada, where he now resides.

He is the owner of the popular band, 2+Entertainment, which performs at numerous venues in Ontario.

The lyrics for his new single, written by him, speaks to elevating women, which he believes is a trending topic all around at the moment.

With three albums and numerous songs in hand, Sparkey is now focusing on directing his music back to Guyana. “Trying to get back to my people,” he told Buzz recently.

Out of Guyana for about 30 years, Sparkey never left music. He left at a time when his song “Wake Up Guyana” was probably the hottest thing on air. It was a song that was named after the popular ‘Wake Up Guyana’ show, he said.

In achieving international acclaim, Sparkey has enjoyed nothing but a successful career in entertainment since he started singing in church at the tender age of eight. Perhaps it was the skills nurtured here that later landed him a place in the Band Corps and Guyana Defence Force’s (GDF) Frontline Band.

“I was born gifted to do this. I live and breathe music,” he expressed, as he recalled how his musical abilities were quickly recognised when he joined the GDF after his secondary school days.

Here, he played the bugle, trumpet, steel pan and even vocalised. He also performed with a number of bands in Guyana like the Sheriff Band, GT Music Machine, and Yoruba Singers, to name a few. It was while at Yoruba Singers Band that he recorded “Wake Up Guyana” which was aired on many radio stations and programmes for many years.

With his genres being Soca, Dancehall/Reggae, and at the behest of the Tonik Band, Sparkey migrated to Antigua and Barbuda as a lead vocalist. It’s there that he focused more on writing and recording his own songs.

Having written and recorded the album ‘Back to Basics’, Sparkey was featured on many albums with other artistes like Claudette CP Peters.

He wrote and recorded 11 of the 12 songs on the ‘Vision 2000 album’ and has also written and recorded over 20 singles. He also wrote songs for other artistes like Pat Raugette of the Virgin Islands, while some of his more known records include “Ah De Vibes”, “Caught Up” and “Zion Gate.”

Sparkey has travelled and performed in countries like Japan, Nigeria, Ghana, Columbia, Panama, US, UK, Australia, and many Caribbean destinations.

He was nominated three times and won the following two awards: Best International World Male Artiste and Best International World Album, as well as Best International World Song by Toronto Exclusive Magazine.

Further, he was named one of the top 20 independent artistes online by Internet Radio Magazine, and Best Reggae/Dancehall Artiste by Underground Music Awards.