ABOUT

Crystal Precious is a multi-hyphenate artist, mentor, event promoter and community organizer based in Vancouver Canada. She is best known for the music video to her single “Apple Pie (No Pie For You)”, her industry podcast Backstage Cash, and as the resident main stage MC of Bass Coast Music Festival.

As an artist, CP lands her somewhere between cabaret torch singer and late-night warehouse MC. Her original songs pay bass-heavy tribute to nineties-style atmospheric hiphop, while her veteran stage chops reflect formal training and twenty-plus years of shows alongside DJs, rappers, drag queens, and showgirls.

Crystal is recognized for helming multiple music & performance venues in Vancouver (Dollhouse Studios, The Crystal Ballroom), which were created with the intent of carving out more femme-forward space in the West Coast electronic music community.

HISTORY

CP started singing onstage at 8 years old in her native town of Smithers, BC, Canada. Later, her family moved to Winnipeg. where she performed for several years in the Prairie Theatre Exchange's Young Company. At 16,  she was asked to become the lead singer of a popular multi-piece funk band, whose members would later go on to form Moses Mayes. 

 

Crystal left Winnipeg to attend the Victoria Motion Picture School, completing the Acting For Screen program. In 2001 she relocated to Vancouver to set down roots and look for creative projects.

Disillusioned by the misogynistic reality of both music and film industries, CP discovered burlesque after attending a fashion show in 2002. Her fascination with the art form's revival eventually lead her to form Sweet Soul Burlesque in 2003 with choreographer Cherry Ontop & pin-up clothing designer Cara Milk.

For almost fifteen years, Crystal managed and toured with the Sweet Soul dancers, kicking off each show by performing her original vocal hip-hop tunes.  She went on to produce and star in their six year weekly cabaret run at The Keefer Bar (2010 - 2016), hosting more than 350 shows at the venue.

Cumulatively, Sweet Soul would become the single most decorated troupe in the world, going on to win 32 titles at the Burlesque Hall of Fame in Las Vegas. In 2006, they co-founded the Vancouver Burlesque Festival, now in its 17the year.

Eventually, Crystal started recording vocals with the bass music producers she met through Sweet Soul's rehearsal studio & DIY venue, Dollhouse Studios. During this time she threw an event with the Bass Coast girls and began MCing on larger stages such as Pemberton Festival and Shambhala Music Festival. more regularly. Her debut recording project “The Striphop EP”, was produced by Self Evident (Lighta sound, Dipped recordings) and was released on East Van Digital. 

Now back  February of 2020, CP debuted her new music and storytelling show "Things I Shouldn't Tell You" at the Push International Performing Arts Festival. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Crystal joined the cast and crew of Youtube start-up A Filthy Lot, now known as Questline. She also curated and performed in shows for the Vancouver Mural Festival,

In 2023 Crystal debuted her monthly podcast "Backstage Cash", exploring the current business sides of being an artist.  She currently recording new music and publishes a local biweekly newsletter listing her top 50 upcoming underground events, The Precious-ness List.