Anna Mariah’s the one
SIX entertainers from the Caribbean will benefit from an initiative by Canada’s Club One Music Fusion Series.
It will expose up-and-coming acts in collaboration with Canadian acts, through a television series to air in Canada and the Caribbean.
The announcement of the artistes took place last Thursday evening at Redbones Blues Café in Kingston. Singer Anna Mariah was selected as Jamaica’s representative.
Other artistes selected are from St Lucia, The Bahamas, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago. The series airs this month on FLOW One (Channel 100) in Jamaica and across the region, as well as Bell TV in Canada.
Anna Mariah was selected from 10 Jamaican artistes: Alexandria Love, Iceman aka Slash, Feluke and The Pheinix, Adahzeh, Jamila Falak, SkyGrass, The Sky Is Broken, Indie Allen, and Jason Worton.
“I feel really good and I’m excited because this is a good opportunity to tap into the Canadian market,” Anna Mariah told the Jamaica Observer.
Singing since she was 15 years old, the Montego Bay native finished third in the 2015 Digicel Rising Stars competition. She has since released songs including a cover of Paula Abdul’s Rush (produced by Taddy P) and Sail Away produced by Stephen “DJ Blaze” McGibbon.
Alter Rootz, John John and Dayo Bejide and 5 Miles To Midnight (Trinidad And Tobago), Skip Monday (St Lucia), and Adaeze from Barbados complete the Caribbean cast.
Last year, members of Club One New Releases visited five Caribbean countries. Forty artistes (including bands) were filmed over three weeks.
The Canadian artistes who will participate are Hot X Proxy, The Kubasonics, Sherry Ryan, Eastcoast Love Story, Port Cities, and Gordie MacKeeman And His Rhythm Boys.
They are scheduled to travel to Trinidad in March for additional filming.
The project started in 2013 and is the brainchild of Canadians Fabian James and Wes Holmes. James is a music producer who toured as a musician for 25 years before moving into artiste and events management.
He spoke about the benefits for Caribbean artistes.
“We are seeing more and more artistes collaborating on creative music writing projects. Just this week, in Canada, the Trinidad group Alternative Quartet and Canadian group Waterfront Fire released a video that was filmed in Trinidad. These two groups met through the fusion project.”
