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In 2007 singer
Romain Virgo, then just 17 years
old, made history as the
youngest person to win Digicel
Rising Stars, Jamaica’s wildly
popular TV talent competition.
Romain clinched
the contest with his rollicking
interpretation of Stevie
Wonder’s “Sir Duke”, which
earned rave reviews from the
judges and a standing ovation
from the studio audience. He
also won the hearts of Jamaican
TV viewers with his good-natured
humility and robust vocals,
which evoke the essence of
revered soul stars Sam Cooke,
Otis Redding and Marvin Gaye.
Among the prizes bestowed upon
the Rising Stars champion was
JA$1 million (approximately
US$11,300) and the opportunity
to record with producers Richard
“Shams” Browne and Tony Rebel.
Rebel, a successful artist in
his own right, referred Romain
to veteran producer Donovan
Germain, the founder of
Penthouse Records whose label
and recording studio provided a
successful launching pad for
many young reggae artists
throughout the late 80 until the
mid 90s including Rebel, Wayne
Wonder, Cutty Ranks, Sanchez and
Buju Banton whom Germain managed
for 18 years.
Recognizing
Romain’s vast potential, Germain
encouraged him to write his own
songs. Romain took that advice
and has since penned several
reggae hits including “Wanna Go
Home (Rain Is Falling)”,
“Murderer” and the Jamaican
chart topper “Can’t Sleep”,
which earned the singer many
fans beyond the island’s shores.
Those songs, alongside several
new selections featured on
Romain’s impressive, self-titled
debut album, released in the
summer of 2010 on VP Records, confirm
that this rising star has now
matured into a stellar reggae
talent.
“Most people say I have been
here before, that I am an old
soul, and now I just come back,”
said the singer who cites Bob
Marley, Beres Hammond, Alton
Ellis and Sanchez, in addition
to the aforementioned American
soul legends, among his greatest
influences. “I want to do good
music, and have it be played not
just locally but all over the
world. I want my music to make a
difference.”
Romain Virgo (his birth name)
was born in a small district
called Stepney in the parish of
St. Ann. He was raised in a
Christian family that sang
together each Saturday night and
recorded their voices on
cassettes, which they would play
back on Sunday morning. While
listening to their tapes one
morning, a family friend
inquired about one of the
beautiful voices she heard;
young Romain, however, didn’t
pay much attention to the
compliments elicited by his
vocal abilities. “I never took
it serious,” he reflected, “I
said it is just people in the
community that want to build my
confidence. When I was about 10,
I had the microphone and I was
singing “Amazing Grace” in
church because I like the sound
of the echo in the church and
everybody was saying whoa, you
can really sing. That is when I
started to take it seriously.”
Romain went on to become the
lead singer for his church choir
and by his mid-teens he was the
leader of his high school choir.
The Aabuthnott High School Choir
entered All Together Sing, the
weekly scholastic choir contest
broadcast on the Jamaican
television network TVJ; they
placed second out of sixty
contenders and Romain’s powerful
vocals established him as a
national celebrity. “The
competition was shown on local
TV so everyone would look out
for it every Thursday night and
that is how people started
knowing me,” Romain says. “At
the end of the competition in
2006, people were saying you
need to enter Rising Stars next
year.”
Romain did just that and he
describes the experience as “a
dream come true. I always
wondered what it would be like
to win, with all of the
attention focused on me. That
night when the host of the show
said that the winner for 2007 is
Romain Virgo, I was like (he
laughs and then suddenly is at a
loss for words, overcome by
recollections of that victorious
moment), I couldn’t move. I was
just looking up, giving God
thanks.” Now 22 years old, Romain is
continuing his studies at Kingston’s Edna
Manley College of the Visual and
Performing Arts with a major in
voice and a minor in keyboard.
He balances his studies with a
hectic live performance schedule
and the further pursuit of his
recording career, which received
much greater attention
since the release of his
exceptional debut album.
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“Romain Virgo”
boasts the singer’s biggest hit
to date “Can’t Sleep”, the
second song he recorded for
Donovan Germain whose
productions dominate the album.
“Germain is a genius; he always
has some interesting
arrangements for the songs but
he always listens to artists’
suggestions and encourages their
talent,” notes Romain who
recorded most of the tracks at
Penthouse. “I wasn’t even
looking at myself as a writer
but after “Can’t Sleep” Germain
said I can really write.” “Can’t
Sleep’s” appealing, deep reggae
grooves and Romain’s animated
delivery belie the grim ghetto
realities depicted in the song’s
lyrics: “This is a serious time,
violence and crime and a bare
gun thing di youths dem have pon
dem mind/Mi cyan sleep a pure
gunshot a beat.”
Several songs
offer equally compelling
commentaries on the tough
conditions in Jamaica: “Who
Feels It Knows It” featuring the
dynamic Jamaican songstress
Etana, is an emotive recession
era anthem: “You think it easy
fi stand up and watch di youth a
cry fi food fi nyam (eat)/ But a
who feels it knows it we a feel
it from we likkle and a grow.”
Escalating violence is addressed
on “Be Careful” and “Murderer”,
which decries the increasing
amount of crimes being committed
against children and was
produced by Dawin Brown and Omar
Brown of Vikings Productions,
who along with Germain comprise
Romain’s management team). “I
was thinking about the things
that are going on in Jamaica and
the effects it has on people’s
lives, especially in the
ghetto,” Romain explained.
“Sometimes people can’t leave
their communities because of the
gun shots. It is disgusting so I
said it is for me to do
something about it, say
something about it, so I wrote
these songs.”
“No Money” depicts Romain’s
financial realities, a response
to the nonstop requests for cash
he received following his
million dollar prize and
subsequent hit singles (“mi have
no money and you laugh like you
think seh it funny”); in a
similar vein “As The Money Done”
was inspired by the many females
who reveled in the glamour of
rolling with the single Rising
Stars winner but quickly lost
interest when his money was
gone.
The passion and purity in
Romain’s vocals as well as the
natural charisma he exudes in
his live performances has sent
many young (and not so young)
women into nearly uncontrollable
frenzies. Acknowledging his
enormous female fan base, his
debut offers several sensitively
sung romantic selections
reflecting love, loneliness,
attraction and betrayal. “Dark
Skinned Girl” is a thoughtful
ode to Jamaican women. Romain
longs for the woman he loves on
the romantic “Wanna Go Home
(Rain Is Falling)” produced by
Dyan Foster for Pete Music. A
beautiful melody is used to
comfort a distraught woman
fleeing a violent relationship
on “Taking You Home” and the
soulful “Love Doctor” offers the
right prescription for any
emotional ailment. Although he’s
in the uncomfortable position of
telling his girl “the girl he
left her for doesn’t want him no
more”, Romain’s expressive
vocals are nonetheless in superb
form on “Should I Call Her?”; he
then declares, over a steady one
drop beat he’s “just a player”
whose “Walking Out on You”, both
tracks courtesy of Vikings
Productions.
Romain deftly rides the frenetic
Duck Dance riddim (a revival of
Steely and Clevie’s popular late
80s beat) on “Customer Care”,
his response to an onslaught of
offers from women who want 24-7
“service” then he changes the
mood, singing of “hard times,
still mi nah do no crime” on
“Live Mi Life”, his vibrant turn
on producer Shane C. Brown’s
brilliant reworking of the Boops
riddim, also from the late 80s.
The concluding track “I’m Doing
Good” features Cameal Davis (who
also made history as Digicel’s
Rising Stars’ first female
winner in 2008) their voices
uniting to inspire the
beneficent spirit that dwells in
all of us.
“Sometimes I wonder if these
artists know the power that they
have?” asks Romain whose
spectacular debut consistently
provides much needed positive
messages aimed at young people,
as written and sung by one of
their own. “Young people listen
mostly to young people so I
don’t see nothing wrong in
singing something positive,
because it will help to change
this whole negative vibe.”
Clearly, Romain recognizes the
influence he wields and as a
true rising star he uses it to
dazzling effect.
Romain made his California
festival debut at SNWMF last
year. His exuberance and
upfull spirit made him a
pleasure to work with. He
was such a massive hit with the
audience that the festival has
asked him to return once again
making him the first SNWMF
artist in nearly a decade to
perform back-to-back years.
Listen to the music of
Romain Virgo
Romain Virgo Links:
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