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Beldina Odenyo Onassis
Scottish-Kenyan musician (1990–2021) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Beldina Odenyo Onassis (born Beldina Awino Nora Kungu; 30 August 1990 – 5 November 2021), also known as Heir of the Cursed, was a Kenyan-born Scottish musician, singer, poet and writer.[1]
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Background
Onassis was born Beldina Awino Nora Kungu in Kisumu, Kenya on 30 August 1990,[2] before moving with her family to Lockerbie in Scotland when she was a child.[3] She had thirteen siblings.[3] Her obituary in the British newspaper The Times describes her as 'Kenyan-Scottish'.[2]
Career
She developed an early interest in music, and began performing at age eleven.[3] She previously performed under the name Genesee, before adopting the stage name Beldina Odenyo Onassis (Odenyo was her mother's surname at birth, which Beldina later took as her own surname).[3] She worked mostly in Glasgow and was named one of Scotland’s 30 most inspiring women under 30.[4][5]
She worked with the National Theatre of Scotland[6][7] on Lament for Sheku Bayoh[8] and with the all-female songwriting collective Hen Hoose.[9] She worked on several theatre projects and was developing a play shortly before she died, which she said was to be "about our relationship with the dead".[3] Sarah Moorhouse, her biographer for the Dictionary of National Biography, said that "death was a source of sustained fascination" in her work.[3]
A regular performer at Celtic Connections Festival, she won the Danny Kyle award.[5] She performed a sold-out show at Glasgow's Tron Theatre in 2018.[3]
Onassis died by suicide at her home in Paisley on 5 November 2021, at the age of 31.[3][4][10]
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References
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