Jadel moves from strength to strength

Soca singer Jardine "Jadel" Legere’s song Deserve It All has racked up 4.2 million views on YouTube. The singer said this is because it’s been featured on MTV Base Africa and BET Jams. Her Carnival season has been packed and she’s looking forward to travelling abroad in April to perform.

The singer said Deserve It All is the only soca song to be featured on BET Jams, and led to her receiving several opportunities and offers for collaboration.

“It started with the video being shared a lot, and then I started getting messages from African artistes asking for collaboration, only to find out that it was on MTV Base Africa. The video reached a million views in three weeks, within two months it had two million views, and then BET Jams picked it up as well. I only found out when someone sent me the video.”

Jadel said she believed the song is popular because it was a diversion from her usual style.

“I believe what comes into it is vocal ability, the singing in it, because I’m singing more, not authentic soca and rap, I’m actually singing. It has an R&B effect and some spice, some jigginess, chants, so it was a different sound for them, and they pushed it out there which I was very grateful. It started to play there in October/November 2021, and immediately I started getting a lot of opportunities with producers having faith in me to put me on their big rhythms which I’ve never gotten the opportunity before.”

The song was written by Jadel and producer Kit Israel, and the music video was shot by Spine on location at Las Cuevas Beach and The Villas at Stonehaven/Azulejo Tobago Mansion.

Jadel said she was offered the opportunity to be on the Buddy Pass Riddim produced by Miguel Joseph of Vibes Productions.

“He told me the rhythm was full, but he was giving me the opportunity to write something that was very big, and if it was big enough then he would find space and that’s the only way I’d get an opportunity to be on the rhythm, so I wrote three songs to secure myself and he was impressed, he chose one which is Up in the Party, which is the most popular song on the rhythm, and in the top ten in Trinidad, along with Deserve It All.”

I Don’t Want Your Man is another song which Jadel has recently released, written by Problem Child and produced by Sammick. She described it as a comedic bacchanal song. She also recently released Spice It Up, which she called a soca zess, crossover dance hall soca. It was produced by Nycenation and written by Rosario.

Jadel said this has been her best year to date. “I’ve been knocking on the door every year, this year is the first year I don't have to monitor the radio and do a lot of marketing, this year it's on every shift, I’m confident that it’s playing, it’s a must play on every shift, and it’s a really great feeling to be here, it’s stress-free as opposed to the other years.”

The singer said she left TT last year in May to do some things for her daughter, who is an American citizen, but was also able to book some shows.

“We were under lockdown so I had to get an exemption to leave the country. When I went to perform, everyone had on no masks and in TT we were in a state of emergency with extreme covid19 cases so I was so frightened, because it’s thousands of people have on no masks and they’re watching me like I’m crazy to have on no mask.

“It was a feeling of serious nervousness but yet I was free. People were trying to tell you that covid19 would only come to you if you think it would come, and if you act like it’s not going to come and you go free, it’s not going to happen to you. I decided to take off the mask because I couldn’t perform with it and took PCR tests for every single performance I did. Everything came back negative despite performing in big crowds. It had to be God shining on me.”

She performed in New York, Orlando, Atlanta, Texas, and Canada, as well as various Caribbean islands.

“Appreciation for soca was even more intense, there was tremendous love and appreciation because of the lockdown for the whole year. Nobody was studying covid19, but I was lucky not to contract it, performing and being in crowds without any mask. I must say what is okay for someone doesn’t always make it okay for someone else, it’s just a risk artistes have to take to keep the soca alive.

“To put butter on bread and to make more music you have to do more shows to reinvest to make more music, and I will be able to make a great investment in my music now based on the shows that I did away.”

For more information on Jadel, find her on social media @callmejadel.