Fireball’s ‘What I Want’ heats up European dance chart
Fireball has finally gotten what he wants. The burly Laventille-born entertainer, real name Rohan Richards, is sitting atop the European Club Music Charts this week following the release of a reworked version of his 2007 Carnival hit single “What I Want” in France last month.
The World Seems the Same From Inside a Hotel
I spent my summer vacation in the Maldives. I snorkeled, I snoozed. I caught up on back issues of the New Yorker. I got to know the local marine life, from the baby sharks and rays that swam up to my villa to a black-and-yellow fish charmingly named the Oriental Sweetlips. But I did not learn a single thing about the Maldives, because I never ventured beyond the grounds of my hotel.
‘Telephone Love’ connects from England
There is so much to say about J.C. Lodge. Let’s skip the obvious, like she sang the all-time favourites Telephone Love, Someone Loves You Honey (the remake) and Love Me Baby, among others.
Instead, let’s start with this detail: a conversation with a singer whose music transcends time, but matter-of-factly says she is getting ‘younger and younger’ each year, cannot be dull by any standard.
On his debut solo album, Raised by the People, New York-based crooner/rapper Notch is a sonero, by definition a well-trained songsmith in the prime of his career. He´s already endured a strange musical journey; from his days in the reggae duo Born Jamerican to his later dancehall days to his latest venture: reggaeton. From an early age, he understood that he wasn´t just American. He´s Jamaican.
The 11th staging of the annual beach event, Fully Loaded, will take place on Sunday, July 29 at James Bond Beach in Oracabessa. The event will feature the top sound systems of the day as well as a performance from top US rapper Fabolous. Fabolous, who recently released the album From Nothing To Something via Def Jam, is currently riding the Billboard charts with the songs Make Me Better featuring Ne-Yo and Baby Don’t Go.
Star pianist Monty Alexander notes the important ebb and flow to jazz
With Cuba and Puerto Rico getting all the attention, Monty Alexander wants another part of the Caribbean to get its jazz props. The Jamaican-born pianist has long been jazz’s most visible star from the British West Indies, but he’s quick to point out that there’s been a strong current flowing back and forth between the islands and the United States since jazz first coalesced in the early 20th century.
JC Lodge’s trip back to lover’s lane
I have always thought of JC Lodge as the (first nearly naked lady) of Jamaican music and the cover of her Selfish Lover album, re-released by Freesleeves 17 years after it first hit the streets, does nothing to change that. OK, so by today’s standards (or lack thereof depending on how you look at it) looking out coquettishly from behind filmy white material which gives a peekaboo view of an already peekaboo outfit pales to what some high school girls do to their uniforms. But for the times, JC’s was pretty strong stuff.
‘Skill’ Cole gets 18 months, fined $1 million
Alan ‘Skill’ Cole, one of Jamaica’s best known footballers, was yesterday sentenced to 18 months behind bars and fined $1.015 million after being found guilty on several drug-related charges arising out of an incident in February 2002. According to Cole’s attorney Patrick Atkinson, the football icon was sentenced to pay $15,000 for possession of marijuana, $500,000, for dealing in marijuana and $500,000 for taking steps to export marijuana from Jamaica.
Faye-Ann out to get the ‘Lyons share’
A soca princess, Faye-Ann Lyons is slowly taking her place among the great female Trinidadian soca entertainers. At 27 years old, Lyons is about to release her debut album.
Daughter of entertainer Superblue, who is an eight-time Trinidad and Tobago Road March winner, Lyons has music in her veins.
One hardly ever hears of a female reggae or dancehall artiste being the target of gay and lesbian protests or being accused of doing songs that incite violence against such groups. But while the female artistes might fall just outside of the target range of such protesters, many have rallied around in support of their male counterparts who are feeling the brunt of the protests.