Healer Twins - Georgian Duo Based in Dubai and London Premiers in Tbilisi
Backstage 76, located in Vake Park, is a newly opened club, probably the only art-café that meets its whole conception in all aspects. On December 27, it hosted a very pleasant female duo – Healer Twins, consisting of Liana and Thea Shengelaia who live abroad and are now debuting in their home country.
The Healer Twins are a dynamic duo, consisting of singer-songwriter twin sisters originally from Georgia. Having travelled and grown up in numerous parts of the world, Lika and Thea Shengelaia discovered their passion and talent for singing at the age of 9, organizing small gigs in their neighborhood.
The twins later went on to graduate from medical school. Combining their long-standing interest for the therapeutic effects of music on the brain, they decided to integrate their occupation and passion to form a duo they named Healer Twins.
They heal by profession – based on global health care methods. “Music is our second profession. We chose this name because music can also be a healer,” Lika told us. She manages to mix singing with playing on a guitar. Her voice is unusually mild.
Yes, indeed, their music is healing. From the very start, everybody was all ears. It is impossible not to be at once captivated by the feminine humming, so saturated and full of tenderness in summary and elegance and sophistication in manner.
Having performed in multiple countries, the twins often return to their "home away from home" in Dubai to perform at top art venues of the city, such as The Fridge, The Music Room and Fete De La Musique, DIFC Arts Night, Freshly Ground Sounds, SIKKA art fair, and Gulf Music Festival.
They started to work with acclaimed fusion guitarist and producer Kamal Musallam, who composed and produced one of their songs, called “Snake in the Desert,” and he finally released and supervised their debut album under his label K&G in 2016. The Healer Twins debut record was a labor of love and hard work, especially for Dubai-based producer Rayan who did most of the audio production work.
“We went to live with our parents in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where our father worked as a physician. We took along musicians playing on international instruments, which turned out very interesting for them as music is not very well developed there,” Thea Shengelaia said, whose voice is more vibrant than her sister’s. The Georgian musical and biological twins were met with ovation and a lot of popularity by Asians.
Recently, they moved to London for studies and music. They have already performed at a couple of venues in London. One of the recent ones was at Rich Mix London.
They participated in Star Wars Episode 7, released in December, and were named as ‘special extras.’ “We were at the casting- they were searching for twins from a different planet, and this “planet,” called Jakku, was actually located in Abu Dhabi. They chose us. It was very memorable. The shooting also took place in different countries. It was amazing,” Thea Shengelaia told GEORGIA TODAY.
Aurelien Girot, Director of Backstage 76, said: “We are interested in authorial music and not covers. Therefore, working with the twins was extremely interesting for us. I liked their style very much.“
Maka Lomadze