Savana sets eyes on Jamaica

Multiple-award winning reggae act and talk show host Savana, has his eyes set on the land of his birth - Jamaica - where he plans to share with his native countrymen what he has been up to since he left almost 12 years ago.

A native of Spanish Town, St Catherine, Savana migrated to the UK to pursue his musical career and was told by someone not to return to Jamaica until he had made it in the business.

Now after 12 years of struggles, Savana is one of the most popular reggae/R&B acts in the UK today with a talk show The Reggae Showcase being aired on Sky TV in the UK.

Where the UK is concerned, all the talk is about Savana, whose two hits, Dilemma and All I Have, epitomise this fresh spirit of adventure to perfection. Savana stays true to his roots, but tailors his music for an international audience. His versatility is confirmed by the ease with which he draws from a wide range of different influences, including pop, R&B and hip hop, as well as dancehall.
While Savana's style is fresh and new, his two biggest tracks to date have been cover versions. That said, his qualities as a writer are definitely on parallel with his other abilities as a singer, rapper and deejay.

Young, urban music fans in the UK love it when he takes familiar melodies and flips them back to front, or constructs rhymes of his own which then stick in their brains like glue. And he's been getting acclaim for his live performances too, which include appearances in front of 15,000 festival goers at the Galaxy Carnival near Birmingham and at the Hammersmith Apollo where he once said, "The ladies were screaming so loud I had to stop because I couldn't hear myself sing. When I stopped singing all the ladies were singing!" No doubt this was a special night for him - one he would not forget!!

First performance

This is all a far cry from Spanish Town, where he was born and grew up. His older brother was a member of a well-known Jamaican roots band, and Savana has happy memories of watching them rehearse in nearby Clarendon. There was music at home too, his mother and also a sister sang in the local choir, and Savana soon learnt to enjoy the recognition he'd get from singing at school. His first stage performance came at the age of 11, when he sang at his brother's school.

Two years later he was renamed Singing Wonder on two counts. The first because he was extremely talented, and the second on account of how he'd puzzle over the hand fate had dealt him.

"I was always wondering about the things happening around me. The area where I grew up, all I ever saw was war and violence, with people shooting each other. I used to spend a lot of time just thinking and wondering about what was going on, and made a promise to myself that I would never move or drop out like that," he recalled.

Life in Spanish Town was hard, but music was always there to soothe his troubles. The only local studio was Rhythm Kings, which had no links with overseas labels, and could therefore only offer experience, rather than a direct line to the top.

No releases resulted from his debut sessions there in 1998, but he did end up with a different name when a friend, noting the youngster's desire and ambition, mentioned how a savannah was like a field with no ending, and was limitless. He quickly jumped on this and took the name for himself and has not looked back since.

(from Jamaica Star)