Tag: vanilla

Its official, for the second year in a row Melissa ‘Vanilla’ Roberts age 27 has copped the Road March queen title.  The official result coming out of the Mash Secretariat is that her song High was the most played on the mash route and as such she has been adjudged the 2010 Road March queen.

Her song high came up against fifteen others including Jumo’s ‘in de air’ and Bones-man’s ‘Mashramani time is we own’. When contacted with the news Vanilla’s reaction was “ok I trust your information but I done’t really react in anyway out of the ordinary when I win.”

She said the song written by her manager Burchmore Simon is about the colourful festival of Mash and encourages all to get involved in building the spirit of Mashramani as we festival taking it to the next level.

Simon also wrote ‘Wrap It Up’ and ‘Mama I done’t Want To Be Born’ and both were adjudged as winners of the 2010 junior calypso competition and the HIV/Aids song competition. Simon also co-wrote the winning Soca monarch song donee by Bonesman titled “Is We Own”.

Of her win for a second year Vanilla said she is elated and hopes that this trend will continue. She let up that this time around because the quality of soca music around “I wasn’t sure if I was going to win this year but last year I was certain when I won with Rude.”

This is her 4th year in the competition. In 2008 she missed the crown by one point when Big Red won with ‘on the road again.’

Vanilla  also placed  second in the soca monarch competition as she had done last year with rude and said that she will certainly be going up for the title of soca monarch next year as well as going for a three-pete.

Burchmore Simon her manager said “it was a great season and Vanilla’s win is an additional incentive to continue to work hard and dedicate ourselves to further developing the music industry”. Two weeks from now Vanilla who hails from Berbice but resides in Georgetown said her fans can look forward to yet another scorching video from her. She will be releasing a video for her single titled “Pressure”. She expressed gratitude to all her supporters and said “I could not have donee it with out you the fans.”

By Mondale Smith

It seems that there are simply no boundaries for young Guyanese daughter Melissa Vanilla Roberts. The two times Road March Queen and second place winner in this year’s Soca Monarch competition is now a Certified “International Sports Science Association” trainer with an outstanding 86% in her final exams. This is the latest in a series of successes for Vanilla this year.

She has been pretty low profile after Mashramani and with good reason too. Thanking her supporters, she successfully completed her first aid and Adult CPR courses, placed second in this year’s Miss Body Fitness competition and has established ‘V Fitness,’ an entity dedicated to providing personal training services.

Vanilla also completed The University of Guyana/ Ohio University Television production Workshop a three week programme hosted by the two Universities and saw attendance by many media operatives.

The question that has been asked often enough is whether she was still pursuing a singer career? The answer is yes. She has recently released a single titled ‘Pressure’ which is played regularly on local radio and is receiving steady rotation in the Caribbean. In addition Vanilla will be releasing three new songs and supporting videos for Mash 2010. She also has five songs on an album “Tropical Caribbean Party” featuring fifteen tracks produced by Kross Kolor Artistes and released in Amsterdam/ Holland September 2009.

What’s next for this lady? She is eagerly looking forward to entering the Soca Monarch and Road March competitions come 2010. She is also enjoying applying her skills she recently acquired to filming and editing the new video releases by KKR and generally getting set to pursue her many and varied ambitions.

In an effort to keep in contact with our artiste, we at Guyanalive.com conducted periodic interviews with various artiste. This will serve to keep our readers up to date with the current and future plans of our artistes. Keep an eye out for more interviews.

In this first interview we will seek to find out the plans Vanilla has for Mashramani 2009…and beyond.

Q: How is your experience in the Carib Soca Monarch Competition this year different from other years gone by?

A: Smile………. this is my third year in the competition, the past years I was there to garner experience and to be part of the backbone for the Headhunters Krew but this year, I’m here to vie for the crown.

Q: Other than being involved in the Soca competition what do you have planned for Mash 2k9?

A: As you know, I won the Road March in 2007 and missed it by one point in 2008. This year I intend to regain that title. So look out for me “behaving RUDE” on mash day.

Q: Besides being a singer you are also a producer, as such do you have any projects in the making for 2009?

A: Smiles……… I have a lot of projects I’m doing which in most cases comes under the belt of Kross Kolor Records. You see, I’m responsible for other artistes as well, so my projects do not only include myself.

Q: After having such a successful run at the Accolade Music Awards, what can Guyana expect in 2009 from Kross Kolor Records?

A: Kross Kolor is always working for the betterment of Guyanese music, our motto “Taking Guyanese Music to the World” and we intend to do just that, in the meantime look out for a lot more videos.

Q: Being a producer and a performer how do you view the progression of local music over the years?

A: I should have corrected you the first time; I’m not a producer but a performer among other things. They are quite a number of issues that I’m disappointed with. If I were to discuss them at this point I may never stop typing. I have to prepare for the Soca Monarch Semi Finals so maybe in our next interview I’ll get in-depth, in the mean time you can wish me luck.

Q: In your view, what is most needed for the local music industry to develop?

A: It is necessary for us (artistes, managers, producers, promoters etc.) to work as one body, when we can do that, then and only then we will be able to move forward as an industry.