Ce'Cile conquers urban radio with 'Haffi Come Back'

Ce'Cile has cemented her name in dancehall with megahits that have rocked stages in the Caribbean, Europe and North America. She has graced the covers of international magazines in Europe, one of the first dancehall female stars to do so.

And now, she is on the verge of doing it all over again, given the buzz around her most recent single, a silky smooth collaboration dubbed Haffi Come Back, featuring dancehall singjay KipRich.

The single has been featured heavily on local FM radio, and has shown oodles of crossover potential as it has been popping up on playlists on urban radio in the US.

"It's important to do records like this, it's been a while since I've had a record that is doing well on urban radio in the United States, and also in the core dancehall market in Jamaica," an elated Ce'Cile told THEStar.

"It shows that local producers can have a dancehall track with elevated production values that can cross over in much the same way Wayne Wonder did with No Turning Back, Vegas with Pull Up, and Skatta with Coolie Dance riddim," she added.

Ce'Cile believes that there needs to be a serious re-education of street selectors who have fallen victim to a weird sort of reverse bias that blights the prospects of local artistes trying to fine-tune a crossover sound.

"When we do songs that can crossover, the street DJs don't play it. But then they play an R & B artiste, who uses our Jamaican slang and mimics our sound. It is just so frustrating, because the only thing they have over us is the quality and money invested in their production, that's what shows us up, but our artistes are just as good," she said.

Still, despite the hurdles, Ce'Cile is heartened by the positive feedback so far to Haffi Come Back.

"This record is brand new and it is generating quite a lot of spins overseas in territories like Albany, Rochester, New York, Miami, and it's going to get a lot more spins on urban radio as a number of disc jockeys in the US have added the song to their new mix tapes," she said.

MASSIVE SOUNDSTAGE

While the single is now available worldwide on all major digital outlets, the indie record label Natural Bridge has now pivoted towards the promotion of the Come Back Tomorrow video.

An official music video was recently completed in Los Angeles with Ce'Cile and KipRich.

"The video shoot itself was an amazing adventure, we shot it at Studio 60, a massive soundstage, and the video was directed by Damien Sandoval. We used dancers from the California music scene, dancers who hail from Belize, and from the US," she said

Sandoval's music video credits include Red Love by Pia Mia (2013), Too Early by The-Dream (2013), and How You Want It by Kamaiyah (2016).

"When the video is officially released, I need everyone to go out and support it. We need to get behind our well-produced authentic Jamaican songs so they can cross over and bring back the financial rewards to Jamaican music industry. The whole world is saying dancehall, we, the industry, need a win," she ended.