Collymore AFTER RECORDING several singles in Jamaica and capturing the award of 'Best Reggae Recording' at this year's Juno awards in Canada, singer Sonia Collymore is somewhat perturbed because she is hardly known in Jamaica.
"It bothers me and I am working on it, that's why I am trying to come to Jamaica so often to do recordings and also to introduce the face behind the songs being played on radio. It's true I'm not well known in Jamaica and we're hoping to change that soon," she said.
The songbird earned the nod for this year's Juno awards for her song You Won't See Me Cry, a single recorded by roots reggae producer Yogie. Apart from Snow, most of her competitors in that category would be unknown to most Jamaicans.
UNFAMILIARITY
However, it is not that radio is responsible for her unfamiliarity. In fact, most of her material, including the song which won her the coveted award, has received airplay. However, what has contributed to her unfamiliarity is the fact that she was born in Barbados and raised in Canada and only visits Jamaica once or twice a year to record.
However, on the night of the awards, whether or not her fellow nominees were known in Jamaica was of little concern to her. What was important was getting nominated for the Juno awards, which many say pale in comparison to the Grammys but is still a major award.
In fact, winning was also not an issue that she had considered since most of the other nominees had been recording in Canada for a number of years. "I went to the awards not preparing a speech, and basically to network. So I was surprised when I won. But the victory was not just me. It was Yogie, Gumption band and the combination of all of us who worked on the project that won the award," she explained.
Despite her victory and unfamiliarity to most Jamaicans, Sonia has been singing reggae for over a decade after being introduced to the genre by her father, who played it constantly when she was a child. She has worked with much loved crooner Beres Hammond for whom she provided harmony vocals between 1994 and 2000.
The working relationship came about when one of Beres Hammond's back-up singers, Marcia English, was leaving to pursue studies. Sonia said she was recommended to fill the spot right away. She explains, however, that she had to rehearse all the material beforehand and did not meet the reggae singer until a show in Barbados when they performed together.
NO TURNING BACK
From then on, it was no turning back for the former soca singer, and, of course, she has placed a lot of value on working with Hammond. "I had such a really cool experience with Beres because he would let his back-up singers open up and do stuff. So it kind of gave me the incentive to jump out and do solo. I found it would be difficult work to do solo and do back-up. So I took the step and jumped out and went solo," she said.
It was through working with Beres Hammond that she met Yogie.
"Yogie is Beres' nephew. When I was touring with Beres I would see Yogie around the gig and around the family. When we first met in 1994, he always talked about doing his own production and putting out his own album. So when he finally started doing his own thing he said 'I'm doing my own stuff would you like to write some songs and do some stuff on my rhythm'," she explained.
That relationship has so far spawned eight singles. Among them are You Won't See Me Cry, Alright and Roots Wine, a duet with Yogie. There are also plans to release an album later in the year. In addition, she has set up her own record label, called Excess Music, and plans to release her album on that label.
All those plans are still works in progress, however, and until they become reality, she holds a day job as an executive assistant at a telecommunications firm.
