International singing group the Melisizwe Brothers has provided some much needed assistance to a local sports academy here.

Last Monday the Kenville Horne Sports Academy (KHSA), based in the community of Rose Hall received a donation of footballs from the Melisizwe Brothers Goldmind initiative. The Goldmind programs are aimed at empowering others to find and develop their gifts/talents, then pay it forward to help others find and develop theirs as well.

The international singing group consists of three brothers: Marc (17), Seth (14) and Zacary (13) who, despite their age, are already classically trained multi-talented musicians. They are managed by parents Mark and Sherry James. The Kenville Horne Sports Academy is non-profit sports based program that has been operating for over 10 years in Rose Hall, catering to at risk and disadvantaged youths between the age of 5 and 17 in the community.

Kenville Horne, Director/Founder of the Kenville Horne Sports Academy said the program faced some challenges because of the COVID-19 pandemic which included limited avenues for fundraising.

He said that he spends a lot of time seeking opportunities for the development of the program and he is happy with how things are progressing. “I spoke with Mark and other representative from the Melisizwe Brothers. We are entering a partnership that is going to bear fruits, one which can see players from the academy going beyond these shores to play sports and advance their education,” said Horne.

The director said that the Melisizwe Brothers signify gold and he is happy that his program is benefitting from their generosity.

Sam Browne, a representative for Melisizwe Brothers said that they have seen the hard work that Horne is putting in to help the community and the Melisizwe Brothers are very happy to support the worthwhile cause. He said that the Melisizwe Brothers use the revenue from their Youtube channel to support youth-based organizations all over the world. The Melisizwe Brothers also attended the Petersville Primary School and the St Martins Secondary School when they lived in St Vincent.

The singing group recently donated musical instruments to the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force youth band and more persons and entities in SVG are expected to benefit from the Goldmind programs.

Kerisha St Hillaire Secretary/Director of the Kenville Horne Sports Academy expressed thanks the on behalf of the academy. She said that Melisizwe Brothers’ donation demonstrates that despite the group’s fame and success they are concerned about the direction of our youth and nation. “We are going to put the assistance to good use,” she promised.

Jayshawn Louie, a player from the KHSA was also on hand to witness the presentation said that as a player he was very happy to see that “we are receiving more footballs”.

“It’s going to make practice better for us and we are going to put them to good use,” said Louie.

The Melisizwe Brothers shot to stardom in 2015 after their covers of Steve Wonder “ Overjoyed”, Whitney Houston “ I look to you”, Michael Jackson “ Ben” and other Motown covers that were posted on their Facebook account . In December 2016 the group posted a cover of the Jackson 5 single “I’ll be there” and the video went viral, racking up over 50 million views worldwide. It currently has over 2.2 million views on YouTube. So impressive were the brothers that they were invited to appear on the popular Ellen DeGeneres show.

The Melisizwe Brothers popularity continued to grow so much so, they were proclaimed winners of the amateur section of Showtime at the Apollo by impressing the audience as well as host, comedian and TV personality Steve Harvey. They also made another appearance on the Steve Harvey show in 2018 to perform the classic Christmas song “ O Holy Night”.

Among the other international appearances that the brothers have made include performing at Time Square, an appearance on Little Big Shots UK, America gots Talent, lead vocals of the Netflix series “Motown Magic”,
The international group also secured a cash prize of US$250,000 and a recording contract with Republic Records after winning the last version of Nickelodeon’s competition show, America’s Most Musical Family.