Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Romain Virgo Spreads Positivity To Young Listeners

Romain Virgo Photo Courtesy VP Records
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 judges and a standing ovation from the audience. 


Romain 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 80s through 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”, “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 comprising Romain’s impressive self-titled debut album due for release on VP Records in June, 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 friend of the family inquired about one of the beautiful voices she heard; young Romain, however, didn’t pay much attention to the many compliments garnered 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. Then, when I was about 10, I had the mic 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 TVJ, a Jamaican television network; they placed second out of 60 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 20 years old, Romain is currently studying for his bachelors degree in performance 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 is sure to receive greater attention with the release of his exceptional debut album.

Included is Romain’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 island’s escalating violence including “Be Careful”, “Murderer” (produced by Dawin Brown and Omar Brown of Vikings Productions, who, along with Donovan Germain comprise Romain’s management team), which decries the increasing amount of crimes being committed against children and “All Alone”, a poignant criticism of teenaged pregnancies and young men’s obsession with guns, as set to a slow burning steadily rocking rhythm. 

“I was thinking about all of the things that are going on in Jamaica and the effects it has on people’s lives, especially in the ghetto,” Romain explained. “When someone wants to leave to go out of the community, sometimes they can’t leave 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.”

“Who Feels It Knows It” featuring the dynamic Jamaican songstress Etana is an emotive recession era anthem that effectively bemoans the tough times in various industries throughout Jamaica and in many other locations: “You think it easy fi di barber stand up inna di shop whole day and nuttin nah gwaan/ you think it easy fi stand up and watch di youth a cry fi food fi nyam/ But a who feels it knows it we a feel it from we likkle and a grow.”

Set to a textured one drop beat anchored in an indelible bassline “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 females who revel in the glamour of rolling with the single Rising Stars winner but quickly lost interest when his money is 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 some not so young) women into nearly uncontrollable frenzies. Acknowledging his enormous female fan base, his debut offers several sensitively sung romantic selections reflecting loneliness, attraction and betrayal. 

The first song Romain ever wrote, “This Love”, is an alluring R&B-styled ballad produced by Richard “Shams” Browne. “Dark Skin Girl” is a thoughtful ode to Jamaican women. “Touch Me” and “Wanna Go Home (Rain is Falling)”, the latter produced by Vikings Productions (Dawin Brown and Omar Brown) and Pete Music (Dyan Foster) express Romain’s longing to be with the woman he loves, while the upbeat “Love Doctor” offers the right prescription for any emotional ailment. Romain addresses domestic abuse on “Taking You Home”, using his immense charm and a beautiful melody to comfort a distraught woman fleeing a violent relationship.

Romain reprises his rousing rendition of “It Tears Me Up” (originally recorded by Percy Sledge in 1966), a favorite of the Rising Stars audience when he performed it at the finals of the competition. Here the musicians and background vocalists capture the original’s gritty Southern soul feel while Romain’s precocious heart-tugging conviction somehow renders a lifetime of heartbreak within a 3-minute tune. “Old soul music is just a part of me,” states Romain, “because I grew up in a house listening to Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, Percy Sledge and Stevie Wonder, but I like to put my own style into it.”

Romain Virgo’s sonorous, soulful styling has raised the bar for Jamaican balladeering but “Romain Virgo” is most significant for providing much needed positive messages aimed at young people, as written and sung by one of their own. “Sometimes I wonder if these artists know the power that they have?” the singer asks. “Young people listen mostly to young people so I don’t see nothing wrong in singing something positive, because it will just 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.

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