Shaya

Birth Name: Marianna Chantelle Hansen

Place of Birth: Copenhagen, Denmark

Date of Birth: 17 February, 1983

Ethnicity: Danish, Greenlandic Inuit, Guyanese [Indian, possibly African]

Shaya is a Danish-born Greek singer and dancer. She was a member of Greek pop girl group Hi-5. Marlain Angelides was also a member of the group.

Shaya was born in Denmark, to a Danish father, Vagn Holmquist Hansen, and a Guyanese mother, Lynette Jones, from Linden. Her mother is said to have Greenlandic and Indian ancestry. Her father’s middle name might imply Swedish ancestry.

She moved with her mother to Sweden at the age of six, after her parents divorced, and again to Thessaloniki, Greece, at age twelve. Her mother was a disc jockey for a time.

2 Responses

  1. madman says:

    Her mother is named Lynette Jones. She is from Linden, Guyana.

    Given the surname Jones, I think she is probably part African-Guyanese since they usually have British surnames. A statement that is often repeated is that Shaya is “of Danish, Inuit, Guyanese and Native American descent”, maybe the Indian actually refers to Indigenous Guyanese rather than Indian from India. I wonder if her mother is actually part Greenlandic though.

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