Reggae Singer Etana To Appear On D.C Summerfest 2008

She doesn't have dreadlocks, is dressed like Billie Holiday on the cover of her debut CD, "The Strong One" (VP Records) and sings in a voice that's equally influenced by the last 20 years of American R&B (Jill Scott, India.Arie, Lauryn Hill) as it is the past 40 years of Jamaican music (Sizzla, Marcia Griffiths, Bob Marley).

She'll be one of two women headlining the Reggae Summerfest, which features Beres Hammond, Ky-Mani Marley, I-Wayne, Turbulence, Chuck Fender, Fire Star, Prestige, Ruth, New Kingston Band, The Iternals, Mr. Tex, Strykers Posse, S.T.O.R.M., Yawd Lynk, Passion Band, Image Band and Iration. (Check our Sound Bets blog for a series of video previews for many of the artists.)

But she's also one of the few women in reggae — period — let alone one singing cultural, political and original roots-reggae songs rather than chanting sex-saturated dancehall tunes. Not that she didn't go through that phase.

"The people that I was working with told me that the first song that I wrote — about a person getting rich, then losing everything and living on the roadside — said they couldn't make money off of that song," Etana said. "So I started writing raunchier lyrics, about sex and stuff, trying to fit in."

But when a five-year-old girl sang one of Etana's sexually charged tunes in front of her, it changed everything.

"It was embarrassing for me," Etana said. "I knew that was not my goal, not my intention. That's when I decided to write songs and do it the way that I do it."
Born Shauna McKenzie, she spent much of her pre-teen years in August Town, a rough suburb east of Kingston. Her family migrated to the U.S. in 1992 when Etana was 9, and she eventually went to college to be a nurse. But she soon dropped out and returned to Jamaica to pursue music, all while becoming a Rasta, which freaked out her Christian mother.

"I had a long perm going down to my shoulders," Etana said. "And when I [starting becoming Rasta] — I bald off my hair completely. My mother thought I was completely crazy. When I moved back to Jamaica, she double thought I was crazy."
But Etana's sonic mix of elegance and earthiness have paid off in the form of hit singles "Wrong Address," "Roots" and "Don't Forget" — and a slot in one of the biggest reggae festivals D.C.'s ever hosted.

She appears at Reggae Summerfest, RFK Stadium, 2400 East Capitol St.; Sun., Sept. 7, 12 p.m.-10 p.m., $35-$80; 202-340-6399. (Stadium-Armory).


The Reggae News Agency

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