SINGER I Eye has made her video debut, for her latest single, Mama’s Hand, is all excited about this latest project which premiered on TVJ’s ER last Friday.

Directed by Ras Tingle, the high-quality video takes I Eye full circle at the home she grew up in with her mother. It weaves beautiful, detailed flashbacks, from her painful initial approach to the now derelict house to her peaceful yet sorrow-tinged expression at the end, sitting in a room from which the memories of love will never go.

Those memories are played out to the beat of the gospel-flavoured roots reggae remake of Bill Withers’ Grandma’s Hand. Mama dresses a cut on a very young I Eye’s knee, rubs a fevered face with bay rum, tugs her to her knees to pray together before the radio as the preacher delivers the word and walks hand in hand with her daughter to church. Then Mama combs a little older I Eye’s hair and also comforts her with a cup of tea after that first heartbreak.

Interspersed through it all are shots of I Eye standing tall in a striking yellow dress, dancing on the road outside the house.

She is ecstatic about not only the storyline and quality of the video for Mama’s Hand, but also the connection of the song with her own life. “My mother grew up 11 of us all by herself after my father died when I was very young. She took care of us, sent us to school and paid each of us so much attention, even though she had to work so hard. Looking back, I can’t tell how she did it. So Mama’s Hand is very special to me, because it is a struggle and a life I have lived,” I Eye said.

She points out, also, the relationship between Mama’s Hand and her debut album, set to be released in August on the Shenghen Clan label. “Mama’s Hand is the first song from my debut album and there are lines in the song, Nappy why you run so fast/take a sip of fever grass, which contain the title of that album, FeverGrass,” I Eye explained.

Hard on the heels of I Eye’s video debut there are plans to shoot the video for the follow-up, Crazy World.