Chantelle Ernandez: "I sing about things that will relate to anybody!"

Chantelle, how would you describe your musical style?
Chantelle Ernandez: "My musical style is reggae fusion and that means reggae at the core. There are definitely influences of other types of genres like R&B, pop, gospel, soul, jazz, blues, or whatever I feel like at the moment. So reggae fusion is definitely the word I'd use to describe my musical style."

You clearly state "reggae at the core". What made you veer towards reggae music?
Chantelle Ernandez: "It's funny you should ask that. Over the years people repeatedly told me: "You should sing pop" or "You should sing r&b or gospel or soul" because that is the kind of voice I have. But when you're a Jamaican, reggae is a part of you. You can try not to like it (laughs) but eventually it holds you. Reggae is a big part of me, a big part of my identity as a Jamaican, as a West-Indian. So I just couldn't escape it, reggae has to be there either way."

Do you feel like you have a goal or a mission that you want to achieve with your music or a message that you want to spread?
Chantelle Ernandez: "Many messages. There is no one message in particular. Really, I sing about things that will relate to anybody. My main goal really is just to connect to people and have them connect with each other through music. I believe that, of all the languages worldwide, music is the strongest one. It's the only language you can understand even if you can't understand the words. You may not speak that actual language but you can understand the emotion. I think music heals and brings people together. So that's just my main goal, to connect people and to connect with them."

You talk about connecting to people, connecting to your audience. Do you feel that there is a different way of connecting with various audiences around the world?
Chantelle Ernandez: "There is! There is a big big big difference in how audiences react in Jamaica to how they react here in Europe. In Jamaica it's all about a hype and you can't really blame that on the people. It's the media, the people that stand between the creators of music and those that listen to it. In Jamaica there is a big politics where the media is concerned and they have a payola system, so they play what they want to play either because they were influenced by a badman or because they get a lot of money to play it; or likewise they get a lot of money to not play it from someone else or for someone else. So they will expose what they will to the people and people don't really get the chance to hear the rest of the music that's out there for themselves to decide whether they like it or not. They can only accept what they are given. If they know it, they accept it, but if they don't know it, they don't accept it."

You've had a lot of success in the charts lately, you've received a Grammy nomination as well. How did you experience that?
Chantelle Ernandez: "It was humbling. I don't consider myself a star, you know, and I'm still not a big deal in comparison to a lot of the other people I've worked with, so making the Grammy list was very humbling. It makes you feel very small, but at the same very big and you feel appreciated and recognized in some way. It's been a really good experience. I can only hope that I continue to get more nominations and some day, hopefully, I will actually win (laughs)."

I hope so too! A lot of female artists I've interviewed have mentioned that, as a woman in the business you have to work twice as hard.
Chantelle Ernandez: "Ten times, chuh!"

Ok, so you clearly seem to share that feeling?
Chantelle Ernandez: "I felt that since the beginning. I started the business at a very young age, while still in school, at sixteen years old. So I want to tell anybody who's going to start, at whatever stage or age: your best weapon is knowledge! Research the industry, research how the business works and that's the best ammunition you will have. Otherwise, people will use you a lot or abuse you in the business. We have much more struggles, being women. I have been told that my place in the business as a woman is to sing behind a man, background vocals, and if necessary, have his baby! Can you believe that? That's very discriminatory against women in general, but it still happens. People think it's something of the past and it doesn't happen anymore, but it still happens. We have to work ten times harder to prove ourselves, to prove that we're talented and that we actually have something to contribute."

Do you feel that things are slowly getting better for female artists?
Chantelle Ernandez: "I think in the reggae industry it's getting better, slowly but surely. In the dancehall industry, not so much. It's still a much harder struggle. But I think it will continue to grow and, in time, it will get better."

Do you have a musical role model or someone you look up to in the industry?
Chantelle Ernandez: "Several. To start locally, since I respect my own, Marcia Griffiths, Tanya Stephens, Pam Hall, JC Lodge, Lady Saw, Cynthia Schloss, all of the females that went before me and struggled before me. I have a great amount of respect for them. And of course I also respect the men: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, the Morgan family, Dennis Brown. I respect all of them for their contribution. Internationally, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, Whitney, Mariah, Tina Turner, the list can go on. It's a long list because I grew up with a very wide influence. I basically listened to everybody and I've looked up to all of them."

If you could do a collaboration with any artist, alive or dead, who would it be?
Chantelle Ernandez: "Wow! That would also be a long list. I would do at least two or three albums of collaborations. First of all Etta James. Also Peter Tosh, for sure. I'd also want to work with Gramps Morgan and Laza Morgan. Also definitely Damian Marley and Stephen Marley. I'd want to work with Tanya Stephens and Marcia Griffiths. Also I'd love to work with Alicia Keyes and with John Legend. As I said, it's a long list."

What are your plans for the future?
Chantelle Ernandez: "Definitely more recordings, I'll never stop writing and singing. Apart from that, definitely more live appearances; that's where I get my gratification, seeing the people, seeing their reactions and connecting with them."

Foto: Laura Forcucci/Reggaeland