Jonnelle asks God to Watch Ova Wi

SOCA artiste Jonnelle Manwaring’s newest song, Watch Ova Wi, is dedicated to the memories of Andrea Bharatt and Ashanti Riley. It asks God to watch over the women of TT.

The song, which premiered on February 19, is the latest in what Manwaring, who goes by Jonelle, calls female-empowerment songs. She said she had been working on the song for a few months and found it interesting that it was coming out at a time when the country was thinking about standing up for women.

“I like that the song is coming out now and I was thinking about it before now and before all this happened, and as a creative it’s good I could express how I feel as an artist to the public, in that way, about the situation. The name of the song is Watch Ova Wi and I am asking for protection for the women of TT, for God to protect us and watch ova wi, because things are happening to us and we don’t know when, or if something’s going to happen, so we just need protection all the time. Especially at this time as women in TT, and especially with what happened to Andrea, and now I feel really strong, it broke me down for a while, I have this song that’s so in tune with what’s happening.”

Manwaring has been in the soca industry for the last ten years. She was born in San Fernando and grew up in Marabella. She began writing songs in primary school under the influence of her grandmother, and continued writing songs and entering competitions while in secondary schools. She got her degree in music performance and education at Costaatt, with a major in voice, where she studied classical music, jazz, and gospel, among others.

She began singing in calypso tents with the Missioneers community tent in Princes Town.

“I really grew a lot with the people from Princes Town, Moruga, and Rio Claro. I used to teach at Rio Claro East Secondary, so I met a lot of people down there and it was a good experience. I moved to Divas Calypso Tent where I was for three years. In 2018, I released the song Melanin, which was the song that had people talking about me and calling me the Melanin Queen. I was performing every Thursday night for Carnival that year. I won the Strictly Vocal crown competition held by Romie Rome and Chinee of Red 96.7 FM, and they put me into a lot of fetes after that.”

In 2019, Manwaring released Foli, which was produced by Kyle Phillips of Bad John Republic.

“It was cut as a single but it became a riddim, and it had myself, Fay Ann Lyons, Menace aka M1, Bunji Garlin, Dale Ryan, and Salty, on the riddim, and it’s still very popular. That was my breakthrough in the industry where people began to say this girl has something, she has a little producing vibes going on, she could sing a little bit.”

In 2020, Manwaring released a song with Chrystal “Buffy” Cuffy called Buff and Tuff, on the Tuff riddim by Bad John Republic. She said touring with Cuffy was a positive, eye-opening experience.

“I always thought about doing more songs with women in the soca industry, and Bad John Republic reached out to the artiste and got her to come on the song and it was a real good experience. Being around Buffy taught me a lot about women in the industry. Anything was her breakthrough song and now it was really nice to see she got bigger and better. She has so many more hits and she’s like a legend, she did so much, so moving with her with that song for Carnival 2020 was good.”

Manwaring said most of her songs are about women’s empowerment, even though she doesn’t plan it that way. She said the songs came from her feeling that women needed to be encouraged to love themselves.

“People ask, why not try a sexier song, but it’s just what the song is, I don’t really fight the music. Up to this point, I never said let’s write a song just for women, it never starts like that, it just starts with a vibe. I’m a very positive person, I’m confident, I love myself, and I want to share that love with women and people in general.

“I told myself I need to be a mother or a sister to these women out here, because they don’t appreciate themselves as they should, they don’t really see what I may see as a woman. I love every part of me, I want them to love every part of themselves too. We really pick at each other all the time, but my songs come from my heart, my soul, that’s just the way that I am. I will treat you the way I want to be treated and I find women need to feel that energy, feel that love more from women.”