Primed for Success Volume 3

The music of Dominica embraces a variety of common world genres including calypso, reggae, soca, konpa, zouk and rock and roll. Dominica’s own popular music industry has created a form called bouyon, which combines elements from several styles, and has achieved a wide fanbase within the island. Much like bouyon, one of the country’s most notable artistes, Michele Henderson, has an equally extensive fan base. A Local Vocal With International Appeal

Michele (pronounced Mi-Kel) comes by her musical talent naturally. She hails from the southern village of Grand Bay, the self-proclaimed ‘cultural capital’ of Dominica, and it is there that her roots are steeply immersed in music. “I grew up in a very musical family, my mother sang, my father played guitar, and even my grandfather was the organist at the Catholic Church next door. So I was constantly surrounded by music.” There was no escaping from musical acts in her village as the vintage cadanse band called the Midnight Groovers used to rehearse right beside her house. In fact, one of her cousins, Gordon Henderson, went on to create the jazzy cadanse- lypso style of Creole music, which greatly appeals to both Europeans and West Indians. “My father and my cousins are musicians and I enjoyed doing it so much, that I decided to pursue my music professionally.” Michele started her singing career at the age of 15. Her form includes live performances with her 12-member band, and she writes and composes music for other artistes, clients and occasions as necessary. The Dominica Goodwill Ambassador has also made endorsements for products and companies locally and regionally; these include Digicel, Courts, and LIME. With her musical family and upbringing, as well as a firm foundation in the classical genre, the jazz fusion singer caught the attention of many people when she won the DOMFESTA Song Contest in Dominica in 1995. Since then, her career has firmly established itself and is always expanding locally, regionally and internationally. Notable performances include numerous World Creole Music Festivals, Caribbean Festival of Arts

(CARIFESTA), Saint Lucia Jazz Festival, UCLA Jazz & Reggae Festival in Los Angeles, and the Roskilde Festival in Denmark, to name a few. Michele’s most recent achievement was winning the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) 2014 Song Competition with her self-penned composition entitled “Celebrating CARICOM”. “I am very happy that my work has been recognized and was considered worthy of regional attention. I entered this competition because I wanted to contribute to Caribbean history, and fortunately for me it was chosen as the one.” Michele’s audience is just as diverse as her vocal abilities and musical styling, with her fanbase stretching beyond Dominica to include the French- Creole islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, British Virgin Islands, and St. Maarten among others. “I’d say I have a wide regional reach, especially in the islands where I’ve performed, and there’s no specific targeted age group either. I guess if the music appeals to them, they like it.” In addition to the Caribbean, Michele has toured and performed in the United States, Finland, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, France, Estonia, Australia and Colombia. Her strategy for entering these markets has been mainly by invitation from international promoters who attended regional music festivals. The wife and mother of two described the music industry in Dominica as one that has grown tremendously and is continuing to open up. “In the past, you really needed to have a contact in the media so that you could get your product on television or radio, but thankfully a lot of that has changed with the advent of social media.

Primed for Success / Vol. 3 / 2014-2015

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