Jadel revels in party power

You just never know what songs people will connect with, which is why, when given the opportunity to record songs on multiple riddims, Jardine "Jadel" Legere took it. Her hard work paid off and, for Carnival 2023, she has five songs playing on the radio, and intends to drop three more soon.

Her groovy or “party” songs, Shake Up Yuh Batty (Bad Up), Take Notice, Drop It, Fix It, Like Dat (Ohhh Baby), are all on separate riddims.

“Party tunes are more my personality. I love to make people dance and sing along in a party, and I love to dance and wine and perform, especially as I have a good sized bumsee. It’s what people want and it’s natural to me,” she told WMN.

She said she does not do music that is inspirational or positive, and she is not the “hands in the air” type. But, she plans to release three power soca songs later in the season, and she is considering entering the International Soca Monarch competition in the Power category.

She also has a ten- to 12-song album of mostly new music coming out this year, all of which she wrote.

Legere said she is on over six riddims this year, and she felt lucky people approached her to be on so many, which they did because of the success of last year’s songs, Up in D Party and Yuh Man.

Also because of those two songs, she performed at about 30 events in Caribbean islands, in different states in the US, Toronto, London, and Singapore in 2022.

“I didn’t want to turn down any because you don’t know which one would catch, which one would take off. You might have a favourite but it could be the one you least expect. It’s about luck because there are some quality songs radio DJs just won’t play.

“But riddims are popular. Its popularity is based on the beat, but mostly who the producers are, who they pick to be on the riddim, if those people are trending, and if the artists come together to push it. It’s about the vibes, the party energy.”

She said some of her songs were recorded three years ago but the release dates were postponed because of the pandemic, while others were newly recorded.

She said usually she released two or three songs a year, but this year she had five, so far. She said when she released the first song, for three months it did not get any air play. So she recorded another and still nothing, so she released more, and then suddenly all of them started to get played on the radio.

Legere attended El Dorado Senior Comprehensive, now El Dorado East Secondary School, UWI Sixth Form, and went on to study law with the University of London at K Beckles and Associates Law Tutors.

“Since I was small I had a passion for law. From primary school I was arguing case points, debating, and stuff like that. It was the only thing I was drawn to. I was always watching law shows, I was fascinated with lawyers, and I believe I had the knack for it. So I went to school and took my subjects to do it.”

Her plan was to become a flight attendant and sing at events to pay for school.

She started singing from a young age in school and church choirs, and at music festivals. When she got older, she would do cover versions of songs at events like weddings, graduations, and christenings, and perform at venues such as casinos. She even learned to play the piano at the Brass Institute in Port of Spain.

While singing at a casino, a member of the band Surface discovered her and invited her to audition for the lead singer. Not long after, a member of Traffik saw her perform and, again, asked her to audition to be lead singer of the band, which she has been for a few years.

During that time, she was being offered solo work which she had to turn down because it was clashing with the band’s schedule, or the band members believed she should include them. So she eventually left and went solo around 2011.

“Still, I was juggling my law studies and aspiring to be a flight attendant, so I wasn’t taking the music too seriously. I was just there in the mix, feeling it out and singing covers. I really started to take it seriously about five years go.”

At that time, in 2016, she won the International Soca Monarch (ISM) breakout artiste award with a chutney soca song. With one year of law studies to go, she quit to focus on her music, which included getting an audio engineering diploma to develop her music skills.

“I didn’t do it for me to go work anywhere. It was for me. And when I have my own studio, I’ll know what I’m doing. Still, I really didn’t believe the music would start taking off. But everything started to fall in place with my songwriting, and my ability to pick and choose songs and have the ear for certain things.”

Before the diploma, she said she was “clueless” to the nuances of music. Songwriters would give her songs and, because they were professionals, she assumed they were good, and she would record “anywhere, anyhow.” But DJs would often find faults and say they could not play the songs.

Now, she has the right engineer for her voice and tone, knows which microphones to use for each type of song, and her songs are well mixed and mastered.

She said winning in the ISM did not bring mainstream success but in 2017 she started to get attention with the song Take Control. Then she had her first breakout song with Round N Round and became a finalist in the 2018 ISM.

That year she had her daughter, Mikaylee, and since then she has been dividing her time between caring for her daughter, touring, recording in the studio, and writing, which she usually does on planes as she travels the world.

Legere and Mikaylee live in Trinidad and Tobago but she in New York most of the time because it is easier and cheaper to fly out of NY. And Mikaylee is with her whenever she is not in school.

She said Mikaylee is a natural entertainer and “overly brave” as she sings, dances and drums on tables at school. She also likes listening to and playing instruments so Legere has already bought her a small keyboard and drum set, and is working on getting her a steelpan and guitar.

She said if her daughter wants to go into the music industry, she would be her manager and use her experience to help her daughter navigate the male-dominated industry.

“I’ll tell her don’t give up on your dreams, consistency is the key, and when you now start, have something at the side because you need financial backing.”

She said producing music is very expensive, at around TT$12,000 for one song. And while there are “lucky” artists whose only song is a hit, artists usually need to have two or three songs as not all would be popular.

In addition, she said, a music video could cost about US$3,000 and promoters want to pay up-and-coming artists like her around TT$4,000 to perform at a show. So she personally did not make any money in TT. But TT Carnival is where people hear about artists and they could make US$3,000 a show performing abroad.

Jadel told WMN people told her having a child would ‘kill her career’ but that just motivated her to climb higher and succeed in the music industry. She said people already liked her music so what she would like now is to be appreciated and respected.

“The issue I’m having right now is the detachment with the name, the face, and the song. People would know the song but not that I sang it. Or they might know my face, that I sing, but they don’t know Jadel and that Jadel sang this song.”

She is hoping 2023 will be the year that changes and she becomes a household name, but even if it does not, so far she is meeting her goal to do better than the last year, locally and internationally. She said she is in the process of setting up a studio at her home in Diego Martin, and since she already writes her own songs, she would like to produce her own music in the future.

She also still loves the law and may return to it in the future, but both law and the music are time consuming careers so she has to pick one for the time being.