It’s no news that Chevelle Franklyn, a popular Jamaican Gospel Artiste featured in an interview with TOLA A.K.A ‘spice On the mic‘ on Praiseworld Radio’s breakfast show The Praise O’Clock Show last Tuesday, 13th June.
During the phone interview, Chevelle Franklyn shared about her love for Nigeria and how she considers herself a Nig-Jamaican. She talked about Nigerian food, music, fashion and stated that Nigerians have a high level of swag.
“To me everything about Nigeria is great. I love the food, i love the fashion, the melody, the music the people. Their swag is very high and they have great personalities. When Nigerians are good they’re very good and when they’re bad they’re very bad.”
She went to talk about her love for Nigerian songs, stating how they bring peace to her life and how she has learnt a number of them over the years. According her, Nigeria is one of her favorite countries and the Nigerian culture is very close to the Jamaican culture.
“They’re products of excellence. The simple songs that they sing brings peace to my life. There are so many of them that I have learnt over the years that has brought peace into my spirit.
I have always loved Nigerian songs. Nigeria is actually one of my favorite cultures and it’s also a bit close to the Jamaican culture. They have PIDGIN and we have our PATUA and sometimes the words are very similar. There are so many things in Nigeria that remind me of home. I usually tell people i’m a Nig-Jamaican.”
She then went on to give a list of her favorite Nigerian foods, ranging from Jollof Rice to Pepper soup.
“Ahh I love Jollof rice and I love Egusi soup and i love my Pepper soup! Oh my god! I am Nigerian to the bone’
When asked to describe her relationship with Nigerian Gospel Artist; Onos Ariyo she stated that they had met at ‘The Experience’ 2 years ago, where they performed a song together and then they just connected as sisters. They have kept in contact since then and when Onos reached out to her about featuring in her single she agreed.
“I met Onos 2 years ago at the experience, I have actually been coming to the experience for quite some time and we just connected as sisters. We also ended up doing a song at the experience together and we just clicked.
We kept in contact and few years later she was working on an album and I said okay, send the track and i’m glad everybody loved it.”
Chevelle Franklyn recently released two new singles and one of them ‘I Have A Father’ happens to be a combination of popular Nigerian Praise songs which reveals the in-depth love she has for Nigeria. The song features American Gospel Music Minister; Donnie McClurkin.
She began her singing career at the age of fourteen. She moved to Kingston where she released her first single ‘Here I Am’. She started off in the secular scene where she released songs like: ‘Mr Lover Man’, ‘Thank You’ and ‘Nice and Naughty’ which is popularly known as her hit single.
In 1988 she announced her transition to Gospel Music at a concert where she was supposed to perform ‘Dancehall Queen‘ but instead sang Kirk Franklin’s ‘Silver and Gold’. And then in 2001 she released her first Gospel album ‘Joy‘.
With many awards to her name, Chevelle has continued to tread upon international grounds, having performed at ‘The Experience‘ in Lagos Nigeria and is known to have worked with Isreal Houghton in a song tagged ‘Surely Goodness’.
