IslandMix - Soca, Reggae, Zouk and Caribbean Entertainment

So I just reach back from la casa de ibiza, where zoelah was supposed to perform.
Before she hit the stage, djs were playing dancehall most of the time. Then she took a mic and started talking about love & support for soca music...her dad is a trini so she is a born trini, and trini is where soca came from, etc. And eventually started singing acapella (because of technical problem) that was a bomb! Boy I was impressed...

Since my friend's friend is managing her here in trini, I was introduced to her and I could get opportunity to lime with her for some time. So I asked her some questions and her answers were;

(1)She go enter the groovy soca monarch competition (she meant groovy was her thing more than power because it has more universal appeal).
(2)She go stay in trini until after carnival.
(3)She is interested in working with all the producers here.
(4)She wants to take her music to the world seriously.

Lastly I'd like to mention she is one of the nicest soca artiste I ever met.
She is real...you know, there are quite a few fake people in the industry.

I gone

Zoelah Boyde Groovy Soca
By Rhea-Simone Auguste

Saturday, January 12th 2008


Zoelah Boyde. Photos: Curtis Chase

When you hear the words "Go Down Low" sung sweetly over a fast-paced beat during Carnival, usually the motion that comes to mind is wining to the ground. It turns out that the song, which has been getting a lot of airplay locally, wasn't written with wining in mind but the other possible meaning. That's right, it's a ladies' anthem for cunnilingus.

The artiste behind the song, a vivacious 23-year-old woman from St. Vincent by the name of Zoelah Boyde, came to Express House recently to explain. Dressed in of black jeans with a pair of black boots and a cleavage-hugging red top, Boyde, without a hint of reservation said:

"I have to be honest. I wrote the song about my first boyfriend while I was still the frontline singer with Signal so that's a little before 2003. That same year, I went in for the Ragga Soca Monarch Competition in St Vincent where I placed second.

"Shortly after that, that boyfriend sent for me to come to Tortola so I migrated to Tortola. But the relationship didn't go too well. He wasn't acting honest and so we'd always find ourselves in a whole bunch of problems and he was always sorry for everything - coming home late leaving me alone in the house. I got fed up. And told him I was going to leave. He went down on his knees and apologised and asked me to forgive him."

She paused with a mischievous smile on her face before adding: "So, I told him, if you really want me to forgive you, you have to go down low. (laughs) At the end of the day, I decided to put it into song - put the idea into words. Now I couldn't really sing a song about something so intimate because that would be too obvious but I figured it was a good topic. So many women talk about it so why not?"



She says her work is informed by the musicians she listened to as a little girl. "I grew up listening to soca - Allison Hinds, Machel Montano, Edwin Yearwood and I listened to calypsonians like Sparrow, Kitchener and Beckett."

But despite the provocative theme of her song, the artiste insists on maintaining a more conservative stage performance. "When I perform, I'm fully dressed. I don't expose my body... I believe I can be fully dressed and be sexy. I've done it before and I've been doing it for the couple years I've been singing."

"That's just the kind of character I am. That's just me. For me to expose myself, that's for that special someone - the one who'll go down low - you know what I mean?" She added with a chuckle.

When asked if she's still in a relationship with the man who served as inspiration for the song, Boyde emphatically stated "No. I am single."

In the coming week, she'll be filming the music video for "Go Down Low" in Trinidad and she'll be performing it as her Soca Monarch contender in the Groovy category. In the Power monarch category, she's entering with her uptempo song for the season "Fly away."

Her mother died in January 2007 leaving her to fend for herself in St. Vincent with little or no help from family there. But Boyde, who currently has a contract with Digicel St. Vincent and the Grenadines said: "I'm just focusing on making something of myself," she explained. "I don't have a strong support system with respect to my family in St Vincent but that won't stop me from doing something positive with my life."

"Luckily, my father's side of the family gives me some support. I am staying with my brother in Trinidad right now and we have a good relationship. My father, who's Aruban, also lives in Trinidad and my sisters, brother and step mother and they've all been giving me a lot of love and support."

"I'm happy to be here. It's always been my dream to be a part of the Trinidad Carnival experience and it is a blessing and an opportunity for me. It feels good being the first female from St Vincent in the Trini soca mix and I want to thank the people here who like the song, the radio stations that keep playing it and pushing it because these are the people who are helping to make me into who I am and keep my name out there."

rauguste@trinidadexpress.com

In other words: THANK GOD FOR HER TIES IN TNT THE MECCA, ELSE ZOELAH WOULDA JUST BEEN ANOTHER VINCY EXPERT ON HOW TO PLANT AND HARVEST GROUND PROVISION.

In other words: THANK GOD FOR HER TIES IN TNT THE MECCA, ELSE ZOELAH WOULDA JUST BEEN ANOTHER VINCY EXPERT ON HOW TO PLANT AND HARVEST GROUND PROVISION.

In other words: THANK GOD FOR HER TIES IN TNT THE MECCA, ELSE ZOELAH WOULDA JUST BEEN ANOTHER VINCY EXPERT ON HOW TO PLANT AND HARVEST GROUND PROVISION.

In other words: THANK GOD FOR HER TIES IN TNT THE MECCA, ELSE ZOELAH WOULDA JUST BEEN ANOTHER VINCY EXPERT ON HOW TO PLANT AND HARVEST GROUND PROVISION.

sometimes i wish we all was discussing this in person you know because i would of take a bucket of sh!t and throw at you with the sh!t you does talk.....

damn!! i didn't know zoelah was so young!!