We see them on stage performing with several entertainers, providing supporting vocals in live performances or on recordings. The work of the supporting vocalists is rarely recognised. For Reggae Month, we highlight the contributions of the supporting vocalists.

For over 30 years singer Dorrett Wisdom has been a supporting vocalist for artistes such as Buju Banton and Beres Hammond.

Wisdom, also known as Dwisdom, who is best known for the 1991 #1 hit ballad My First Real Love, believes that supporting vocalists don’t usually get the respect that they deserve.

“We don’t get respect all the time. For the person that I am working with right now, he definitely shows appreciation to his background vocalists. One of the things that I admire about him is, he will come off the stage and ask the ladies to come and see him, and he’d ask us how was the performance. When an artiste can look at his background vocalist and say thank you, that is definitely showing appreciation. That, for me, is tops when an artiste recognises our talent,” Wisdom shared in an interview with the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

Originally from Central Village in Spanish Town, St Catherine, Wisdom moved to Portmore, where she presently resides. She explained how she began providing supporting vocals for artistes.

“Dean Fraser was the one who got me involved in being a background vocalist. I remember performing at a club called Live & Direct, it was myself, Heather Grant, Susan Couch, and Cindy Breakspeare, and I remember Pablo (Pablo Stewart, her former manager and a member of the group Kotch) coming to me and saying, ‘You’re going to close the show,’ and I was like, ‘What?!’ And I said, ‘No, I can’t do that.’ Dean was there and, after the performance, he approached me and asked if I could sing background vocals, and I said, ‘No, I’m not good at that.’ And he said, ‘From you can sing, you can do it. Come to the studio.’ And that’s where it started from,” Wisdom recalled.

Since then, she has toured all over the world and sang on several musical releases.

“And then after working Dean I went to work with Buju Banton until around 1997, and I spent like 3 years and moved on to Beres Hammond as one of his senior supporting vocalists, where I am spending around 24 years now,” Wisdom added.

Asked what she enjoys about being a supporting vocalist, Wisdom said: “The thrill I get is when an artiste can really sing. I used to say to my boss, ‘I am not a background vocalist, I am a singer, so when I sing behind you on stage I sing as if I am a lead singer,’ but in the sense, you caress the song in such a way that it complements what he’s doing. And if an artiste is good, and I enjoy that artiste, it gives me that thrill.”

She reinforced the importance of supporting vocalists.

“The contribution of supporting vocalists is very important. Sometimes the artiste needs that energy. The artiste can be tired at times or has a vocal problem and a supporting vocalist, especially if she is carrying the melody, it helps to cover certain flaws… and if the artiste is hoarse. It also helps to complement the artiste on stage; we are important even in the studio. Sometimes an artiste cyaan sing so good, so when the harmonies are placed over the vocals, and you haffi double up dem voice. It is important,” Wisdom disclosed.

She has sung background vocals on songs and albums by Luciano, Beres Hammond, Buju Banton, Anthony B, Richie Spice, among others.

Wisdom’s first choice of a career was not music. She studied fashion designing, which she still does in her spare time.

“I studied at Eastern Academy, a private high school, and then I went to learn to do sewing at the Fashion Academy of Jamaica. At first it was just fashion and then singing came after that,” Wisdom shared.

And is her profession a profitable one?

“I don’t think it’s that profitable. You have to love it to be in it. If you are working for more than one artiste it may be profitable, but you must have something on the side doing,” Wisdom said.