Exco Levi talks Festival song entry ‘Feel Like Home’
Published:Thursday | July 13, 2023 | 12:09 AMYasmine Peru/Senior Gleaner Writer
Singer Exco Levi has won Canada’s prestigious Juno Award as Reggae Artiste of the Year five times from a whopping 10 nominations; he has been awarded a star on Canada’s Walk of Fame, and is in demand for shows across North America and Europe. His newest challenge, however, and in a sense his most ambitious, is winning the Festival Song Competition for 2023.
Exco Levi, who migrated to Canada in 2005 at age 23, has found enormous success in his adopted country, but he still has a yearning to make his name in the land of his birth. So committed is he that, once he was selected as a finalist, he gave up eight shows – including the Afro Festival and three shows in Vancouver – in order to make himself available for all the lead-up events for the Festival Song Competition.
“I am a patriotic Jamaican and I garner strength from my homeland. I grew up in Manchester listening to Festival songs and I knew most the lyrics, so it is an honour for me to be representing in this way,” explained Exco Levi, who named Bam Bam and Cherry O Baby as two of his favourite Festival songs.
His entry is titled Feel Like Home and is produced by Donovan Germain, with whom he has worked closely on winning combinations since 2012.
“Regardless of where you travel, nothing compares to the sense of joy or pride when Usain Bolt runs across that finish line or when the plane lands in Jamaica. I feel like I am home when I reach Manchester and can look at the field I used to play on as a boy. My song talks about that,” he explained.
Exco Levi, who was recognised for his contribution to culture with an induction into the Brampton, Ontario Walk Of Fame in 2016, performed Feel Like Home for the first time last week at the Festival Song Presentation show.
“I must be honest .... I was a bit nervous. This was the first time I was being judged at a competition like this, and the first time I was performing in front of people like the minister of culture. The crowd was more of a listening crowd and that was good,” he shared.
Pointing out the plus of being in the competition, he noted that this is the first time he has attracted so much media attention in Jamaica.
“A lot of times I come to Jamaica and no media house calls me. But I understand. I have never had a song that break out locally. Jamaican people are different. They choose the songs that they want to support. You can’t force it on them. So getting to talk to the press and the people getting to know me is a big deal,” he said.
The winning Festival song will be selected following two televised shows on July 6 and 29 on TVJ and PBCJ. There’s a prize of $3 million for the winning entry, to be shared among the producer, the writer and the singer.
“The top prize would be great. I would go down in history and that would be monumental. But I am already a winner. There were 220 entries and mine was selected among the top 11,” Exco Levi said.
The other finalists are Slashe, Best in The World; Mento Tones, Jamaica Mi Born & Grow; Av&ante, Jamaica a Mi Yaad; Lady Denna & the Whole Note Mento Band, Little Paradise; Hot Rod, M ore Love; Shuga, Dancing Same Way; N-Rich, Sovereignty; Princess Black, B ig up Mama Ja; Prince Fabulous, No Weh Like Yard and Eric Donaldson, Reggae Jamaica.
Exco Levi has released three full-length albums, Country Man (2005), Narrative (2018) and Black Creek (2021), and has also put out dozens of thought-provoking singles, such as Bleaching Shop and Mr Hammer, which speaks to the violence plaguing communities. Three of his songs have been licensed in film and television.
He tours annually around the world with his band High Priest and as a solo performer. His festival performances in Canada have included The Montreal Reggae Festival, Jambana, the Vancouver Island Music Festival, and the Harrison Festival of the Arts. In the United States, Exco has played Reggae on the River and the Sierra Nevada World Music Festival in California, Point Reggae in Maine, and SOBs in New York City. International touring highlights include the world-famous Rototom Reggae Festival in Spain and the CHI Showcase in Dubai, as well as major festivals in the UK, Germany, Denmark and Finland.