Nine years after he stepped into the music business writing songs for Jamaican artistes and American rhythm and blues singer Teyana Taylor, Vision Alexander is ready to showcase his vocal abilities.

Today (March 10), the songwriter and singer releases Beautiful, a track co-produced by Sean Alaric, Tariq “Kamau” Smith, Adrian “Blizzy” Baxter, and Andre “Dre Vibez” Chevolleau.

In an interview with the Jamaica Observer earlier this week, Alexander (real name Simon Alexander Mitchell) explained the decision to showcase his music.

“Music is very spiritual for me, and I believe that all of us, as musicians, have a part to play when making a joyful noise unto the Almighty’s lands. Now is my time to contribute to that mission, but as an artiste.

“I will continue to write music for other recording artistes; that won’t change. But get used to hearing songs coming from Vision Alexander,” he explained.

The artiste, who was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, and attended St George’s College, after which he received a football scholarship to attend Post University in Waterbury, Connecticut.

He now resides in South Florida.

“Growing up in Jamaica, it’s difficult not to be influenced by music. But the truth is, music was never my first love; football was. I got into music much later in my life when the Almighty opened my eyes to my songwriting ability. And since then I haven’t looked back. I was led by faith, not sight, as the Bible says. So, I plan to drive this new-found talent until the wheels fall off,” said Alexander.

The first song he wrote was Jammin, his collaboration with Morgan Heritage member Mojo Morgan, which was produced by Warren Blouse.

Vision Alexander wrote the reggae-inspired Bad, which is featured on Taylor’s chart-topping 2020 release called The Album.

Bad was co-produced by Jamaican Sean Alaric and MIXX (real name Baruch Nembhard, born in Florida to Jamaican parents).

“I grew up with MIXX and he was working on Teyana’s album. He reached out and said they wanted some stuff added to the project, so I just added some melodies and words to the track and that’s how the collaboration with Teyana came about,” Vision Alexander disclosed.

His songwriting skills are evident on singer Jesse Royal’s Grammy-nominated album, Royal. He wrote Lion Order, Natty Pablo, Rich Foreva, Dirty Money and Differences. He also worked on Switch it Up by Protoje and Koffee, Roll and Don’t Ruin My World by Julian Marley, and Dinero by Lila Ike.

He has also written songs for Jo Mersa Marley, Jaz Elise, G Whizz, and Romain Virgo.

“Songwriting allows me to showcase the majority of my talent — apart from actually performing the songs. But that’s why I am now stepping into the artiste field to experience that feeling of seeing thousands of people singing along to my music with me as the artiste,” he said.

Vision Alexander hopes Beautiful is an expansion of his contribution to music.

“Musically, my gift of songwriting will play a major role at the table of our industry. I’ve worked with some of our industry’s top recording artistes, and I’ve seen what my songwriting and melodic ability can do when sung by our industry’s best,” he said. “So I’m confident that I’ll contribute a great deal now as a recording artiste. And [I] hope that all the valuable lessons that I’ve learnt from the amazing artistes I’ve had the privilege of working with will hopefully be put to great use as an artiste.”