Mary Dominica Pauley (born October 22, 1980), known professionally as Mieka Pauley, is an American singer-songwriter.

Early life and education

Pauley was born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

and raised in

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

, and

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, where she attended

Cherry Creek High School Cherry Creek High School (commonly Cherry Creek, Creek, or CCHS) is the oldest of seven high schools in the Cherry Creek School District in the Denver metropolitan area. It is located in Greenwood Village, Colorado, and is the largest high school ...

. She returned to Boston to attend

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where she entered the local music scene and began performing at coffeehouses and open-mic nights.

Career

In 2005, she won the grand prize in the first

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

Emerging Artist competition. In 2008, she won the grand prize in both

Cosmopolitan Cosmopolitan may refer to: Internationalism * World citizen, one who eschews traditional geopolitical divisions derived from national citizenship * Cosmopolitanism, the idea that all of humanity belongs to a single moral community * Cosmopolitan ...

's StarLaunch and the New York Songwriters Circle Songwriting Competition, and she was nominated for a Boston Music Award. She has appeared on

Daytrotter Daytrotter was a recording studio, music venue and subscription-based music discovery website located in Atlanta, United States. It hosted recording sessions with indie music acts. The original studio in Rock Island, Illinois, was founded in 20 ...

, PRI

Mountain Stage ''Mountain Stage'' is a two-hour music radio show, first aired in 1983, produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting and distributed worldwide by National Public Radio (NPR). Hosted by Larry Groce from the show's inception until 2021 and curr ...

BBC London BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London, Surrey and parts of the surrounding areas of the Home Counties. Its output includes the daily '' BBC London'' news bulletin and w ...

, and Fox25 Boston. She has gone on tour with

Citizen Cope Clarence Greenwood (born May 20, 1968), also known by his stage name, Citizen Cope, is an American singer-songwriter and producer. His music is commonly described as a mix of blues music, blues, soul music, soul, hip hop music, hip hop, folk mus ...

and

Edwin McCain Edwin Cole McCain (born January 20, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His songs " I'll Be" (1998) and " I Could Not Ask for More" (1999) were radio top-40 hits in the U.S., and five of his albums have reached the ''Billboard ...

Personal life

She married

Baratunde Thurston Baratunde Rafiq Thurston (; born September 11, 1977) is an American writer, comedian, and commentator. Thurston co-founded the black political blog ''Jack and Jill Politics'', whose coverage of the 2008 Democratic National Convention was archived ...

in July 2008. Pauley and Thurston divorced in 2010. In 2010, Pauley started dating singer, songwriter, producer and DJ, Shane Maux, who also co-wrote her song, "Wreck". Pauley and Maux were married in 2016. They have two children together, twins Lilou Dominica Lynn and Luca Rain Orion, born in 2015.

Discography

* In November 2007, she released ''Elijah Drop Your Gun''. The budget of $17 thousand was financed by fans. In the summer of 2012, a song from this album, "Devil's Got My Secret" was featured in the Bruce Beresford film (starring Jane Fonda, Catherine Keener and Elizabeth Olsen) Peace, Love & Misunderstanding. * In August 2009, she released an EP ''From the Mouth of Paris'' under the short-lived band name "The Mieka Canon" (since re-released under her own name) via

Cosmopolitan Magazine ''Cosmopolitan'' (stylized in all caps) is an American quarterly fashion and entertainment magazine for women, first published based in New York City in March 1886 as a family magazine; it was later transformed into a literary magazine and, sinc ...

's StarLaunch. * In June 2012, she released ''The Science of Making Choices'', financed completely by fans via

PledgeMusic PledgeMusic was an online direct-to-fan music platform, launched in August 2009. It was started to facilitate musicians looking to pre-sell, market, and distribute projects, such as recordings and concerts. It bore similarities to other artist pa ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pauley, Mieka 1980 births Living people Harvard University alumni Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts Guitarists from Massachusetts 21st-century American women singers 21st-century American women guitarists 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American singer-songwriters Cherry Creek High School alumni