Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Ce'Cile improves International stock, while keeping her 'street cred'


Few Jamaican artistes have been able to consistently churn out relevant material locally, maintaining a large and loyal fan base, while at the same time maintaining international appeal. Ce'Cile is one. Known as the 'Bad Gyal' of Jamaican music, Ce'Cile is fresh and clean with a new album called Jamaicanization, new videos and new dancehall tracks which will be essential to any popular DJ's playlist.

Over the past months, the artiste has maintained her presence locally with dancehall tracks such as Woot Woot (Smoking rhythm), Pree Mi (Blaze Fia rhythm) and, more recently, Tip Me (Green Faces rhythm). On the reggae side, she has released heavy hitters like When You're Gone (Cardiac Bass rhythm), Rise Up (Message rhythm) and Missing You (Monte Carlo rhythm). These are just some examples of the way Ce'Cile has managed to straddle both the reggae and dancehall genres.

The artiste has just recently premiered the video for When You're Gone/Missing You.

Not only has Ce'Cile been dominating the local airwaves with some hot tracks, but she has also been present on the local stage, being a crowd puller at shows such as Reggae Sumfest 2011, LIME Fashion Nite Out, LIME 'Skool Aid', and several other locals shows. However, Ce'Cile's presence is always mostly felt on the international stage.

Ce'Cile has had a constant presence in Europe and the Caribbean throughout her career, and this year has been no different. The artiste is a regular on the stage and in the clubs in countries such as Germany, France, Netherlands, Amsterdam, French Guiana, and Africa.

European tour

Ce'Cile kicked off the 'Jamaicanization European Tour' with performances at a host of festivals, including Summer Jam (Koln Germany), Juicy Beats Festival (Dortmund, Germany) Berlin Reggae Fest (YAMM Berlin, Germany) Fest in the Park (Belgium) and Amsterdam Reggae Fest (Amsterdam). Ce'Cile also made stops in French Guiana and Belize, and will continue with stops in places such as Guyana, St Kitts and St Maarten in the coming weeks.

Ce'Cile is most popular in Germany and has been one of the most dominant Jamaican artistes on the German charts for several years, and the only Jamaican female artiste on said charts.

She is nominated for Africa's Channel O awards in the category of Most Gifted Raggae Dancehall Music Video for She Say Dat (remix), a collaboration done with Kenyan artiste Wyre.

Ce'Cile shot the video with Wyre while in Kenya in March of this year.

The artiste has released Jamaicanization on iTunes and via mobile APPs. The album, which was released August 19 in Germany, has been previewed in magazines such as Grazia, and the German Playboy.

Ce'Cile is also one of the few Jamaican Dancehall artistes utilising Album Apps and her full album plus lyrics are available as application download for Android and iPhone users.

Jamicaicanization, not yet released in Jamaica, contains 16 tracks, 13 of which are new. So far, the reviews have been excellent.

Reggaeville.de states: "In fact, Jamaicanization is an album to listen to from beginning to end. It works for dancehall fanatics, it works for (more or less) mainstream audience, it works in a club as well as a background soundtrack while having breakfast, doing ironing, or whatever."

Unitedreggae.com says: "The album is, arguably, her most high-profile release to date and is also going to have a legitimate claim to being her finest piece of work to date."

Jamaicanization has also been doing well on the charts. Two of the songs on the album, Step Aside (Beep Beep) and Singing This Song, are No. 10 and 11 on the MTV German Black Charts, respectively. Ce'Cile is sitting pretty in the middle of the chart and is ahead of artistes such as Lil Wayne, Drake, 50 Cent and Mary J. Blige, Singing This Song peaked at No 4 on said charts.

Jamaican fans can go to purchase or listen to the album at iTunes US or visit www.jamaicanization.com for more information.