The name Kadejah Anderson is most commonly associated with the world of pageantry. As a young model, the beauty queen has worn many crowns throughout her career, including Miss Global Jamaica and Miss Grand Jamaica. She was also Miss Universe Jamaica’s first runner-up in 2018.

But while the runway became her playground, Anderson had an unquenchable thirst for music. That passion would eventually see her trading in her sash for the mic in 2019 as she pursued music professionally.

“It’s hard to explain because I loved my pageantry days. I loved modelling. I loved the stage, but I always was interested in music. My mom was a singer and her dream was to pursue music, but then she got pregnant with me. In a sense, my mom didn’t get to live her dream and I think the talent was passed down to me to pay it forward,” she told
Jamaica Observer’s Splash. “I grew up listening to her singing and the passion just grew. I fell in love with melodies and music just became the easiest way for me to express myself. So even while doing pageants, my talent was always singing, and so I always intended to do it professionally.”

Having made the decision to pursue her music career, Anderson knew she had to rebrand. With the hopes of building something completely new, the beauty queen repurposed and re-emerged as Annaleax.

“Being known as Kadejah the model, it was hard for me to get into music and make people realise that I was more than just a model. I had to change my name so they could see that I was serious about being a singer. I changed it on all my social media platforms and flooded them with this new persona because this was a whole new thing and I wanted people to rediscover me in a sense,” she shared. She admits the former helped with her professional transition as her fan base was now tuning into her music and realising she was more than just a pretty face.

Anderson indicated that getting people to see and hear Annaleax was a slow-moving process.

“I made a turn in March 2024 and it’s been going beneficial so far… When others saw that I was pushing I think they realised that, ‘Hey… she wants this,” the artiste shared. “I was putting in the work and I think listeners respected that. I got to a point where I was recording myself at home from equipment that I purchased with my own money. So they saw the hunger and they tuned in some more.”

Doors began opening for Annaleax and the singer ended up being specially selected for a collaborative music project between Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. The project, which was dubbed United Through Music, was spearheaded by former Dominican Republic Ambassador to Jamaica Angie Shakira Martínez Tejera. The entire initiative birthed some 60 original tracks and Annaleax was able to connect with the likes of reggae artiste Jesse Royal, acclaimed Dominican film-maker Iván Herrera, and multi-Grammy-winning producer Carlos Ariel Peralta, better known as Maffio.