Barbadian Grammy-nominated artist Shontelle ‘Shonny’ Layne has released a new single just in time for summer and she has created history while doing so. Shonny is now one of the first black female artistes to release non-fungible tokens (NFT) as a means of connecting with her fans with her latest single House Party.

An NFT is a unit of data that certifies a digital asset to be unique. NFT’s can be represented in photos, videos, audio and any type of digital file.

The singer, who is known for older hits like “Impossible” and “T-Shirt said she was simply trying to find a way to survive the pandemic.

Financial empowerment

“I feel like it’s the future of not only being able to earn as an artiste but it is also a way for you to have ownership, which is the key. Because you can sign a record deal and get all this music played, you might even be successful, you release all these songs, all these albums, but you don’t own these masters,” she explained in a video on her Instagram account.

“NFTs empower you financially,” she added.

The top bidder for the track will get customized House Party artwork, a dubplate with the fan’s name incorporated into the song, a music video cameo, and a preview of unreleased music.

Shontelle announced the release of the new single via her Instagram account. The song is produced by fellow black female artists Barbadian Adaeze and Nigerian Dunnie.

“Just Grateful. If you’ve been watching our story unfold, thank you for being here. So we’ll use it to keep burning a path for you to follow. Proud to pave the way for us underrepresented Black Women in Music,” she captioned the post.

In the song, Shontelle calls her male lover to come over for a good time. The song lyrics are not only appropriate as we continue to stay inside, but they are carried over a beat that is chill, and will have you dancing too.

She sings; “ I know you got places to be and I know when you’re with me but we’re doing this thing tonight yea. Baby boy we gonna take it to a higher. Oh looking up at my body. Just come to my House Party – me and the gals at a house party.”

Shontelle’s versatility was also on display with her newest freestyle Tomorrow which spoke powerfully to serious social justice issues like the Black Lives Matter Movement and political corruption.

Although Tomorrow clocked just over 4000 views on YouTube,  the comments were lit with fans praising the song for its creative ingenuity and seriousness to the issues the world is facing.

Fans have been calling for more of her music just like Barbadian counterpart Rihanna; only time will tell what else we can expect from the Bajan beauties music-wise.