KINGSTON, Jamaica — With a new single, a new deal with a major international record label and an EP loading, dancehall artiste, Ishawna is undoubtedly feeling like a ‘new child’. The controversial female deejay on Friday released her latest single,’ New Child’ and claims the song will usher in a renaissance unlike anything dancehall has seen in recent years.

“After I did the Brace It collaboration with Ed Sheeran, I did Sumfest and then I got signed to a major label so I’ve just been working and preparing myself for all the new things coming. We just finished working on the music video for Brace It and I’m really looking forward to putting that out there plus I’ve also been working on a ton of new music with an EP on the way so I have a lot of stuff coming,” she said.

‘New Child’ has amassed over 100,000 views on YouTube and is currently number nine on the streaming platform’s list of trending songs in Jamaica. Ishawna told OBSERVER ONLINE that after purposely not releasing any new material since the Ed Sheeran collab, she wanted to come back with a track that would not only be a ladies’ anthem but that was also fun, upbeat and relatable.

“With this single, I wanted it to be something fresh, something fun and something every woman can relate to but I was very purposeful in not making it an angry song. I wanted it to be about female empowerment because we’ve all been in a situation where we feel like a burden is lifted off our shoulders when we walk away from certain relationships,” she explained.

“I wanted it to be a celebration of our independence when we walk away from things that aren’t serving us. We deserve to celebrate new beginnings.”

With that said, the ‘Equal Rights’ deejay revealed that with the support of the new label, her career is poised for even bigger things.

“Doing music on my own over the years would definitely have been more difficult than having a team so I think this new deal is going to work out better for me because now I have that support. Usually, I just put stuff out with no set structure or anything but now I have plans and there’s a lot going into the marketing and just everything coming together,” she said, indicating that her new EP will serve to introduce her to a wider audience.

“By summer the EP will be out so my fans can look out for that. You have to wait and see what kind of vibe it will have. I am not only doing it for one demographic. My label wants to put me out there again and I want to introduce myself to the world,” she said. “ I want to build my fan base even more. The song with Ed Sheeran put a lot of people onto Ishawna because he has a massive fan base. Now we’re looking to release the music video for our song a few months before I drop the EP so overall I am definitely thinking international with the new material.”

Still, while she has her sights set on an overseas audience, Ishawna was quick to point out that the former does not mean she’ll alter who she is at the core. She told OBSERVER ONLINE that as dancehall’s Cinderella, her days of bringing the festivity to music are far from over.

“I will never change so I just have to find a way to make my songs commercial without altering who I am,” she said, admitting that while her career has been marked with numerous controversial moments, the latter was never intentional.

“I never tried to be controversial to be honest. I was just being myself and for some reason people thought it was controversial. My label understands who I am as an artiste and that’s important so I don’t think they’re going to try to change me. I’m always going to give dancehall.”

“Every major international hit to come out of Jamaica has been dancehall. Songs from Sean Paul, Shaggy, Shabba, Patra and the list goes on,” she continued. “When you’re doing music for the love and not for the likes everything will fall into place.”