A Washington, D.C. native, the only child of a classical pianist mother, Rachel Panay has been honing her craft since the age of eight. At Duke Ellington High School for the Performing Arts, she trained formally in voice, dance, and musical theater and wrote her first composition, “Gun of Love", which became WPGC Washington, DC's theme song for its "Stop the Violence" campaign.
After graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, Rachel became deeply involved in the Boston live music scene but continued to move in the Dance/House direction with tracks “Desire” and “Shine On” which landed on Miami’s SFP Records.
Rachel relocated to Miami to collaborate with several production teams leading to the signing and release of additional original productions including “You Make Me Feel” sited in Billboard Magazine as one of the top Dance tracks by an emerging artists, as well as her first major label appearance on BMG Latin’s remake of Foxy’s “Get Off” produced by Jason Klein of MonsterTaxi, currently available on BMG’s Latin Party compilation and Verano 2003.
While in Miami, Rachel also performed for the most high profile of events including Winter Party, White Party, Mr. Miami International, Miami AIDS Walk, Aqua Girl and more and had a regular series of performances at South Beach night spots, Frankie & Johnny’s, The Cactus Club and the Hotel St.
Augustine.In the fall of 2003, Rachel captured imaginations of dance floors, DJ’s and fans everywhere with “The Walk of Shame”. DJ Angelo Kortez’s Palacio Edit was selected by Rosabel to appear on their Fireball CD compilation on Centaur Records which was released in February 2004.
DJ Yiannis Elia of Outstanding Productions and resident of Washington, D.C.’s Velvet Nation took the vision to an entirely new level, completing the original, full vocal production by Andy Sikorski of Miami’s Melodylab.
The underground buzz around the track continued to build here in the States and abroad as “The Walk of Shame” steadily tread the path to club anthem status.During the excitement surrounding “The Walk of Shame”, Rachel was busy working on a new collaboration with Josh Harris, formerly of renowned remix team, The Passengerz.
Their first single, “Back to Love”, is coming out on Act 2 Records in September of 2004. “Back to Love” is an upbeat, positive House blaster with great cross over appeal evidencing just how infectious Rachel's sound and style is.
Drawing comparisons to her influences Kristine W., Amber, and Ultra Nate, Rachel is poised as a future leader in the next generation of vocalists and songwriters who believe that Dance music can and should uplift, provoke thought and feeling, speak the truth, and of course make the floor move and club goers sing along!Rachel currently commutes between her hometown of Washington, Miami & New York City.
She performs regularly at club venues and events and is recording new material both in Miami and New York.
