With another Mash Road March title under her belt, Melissa ‘Vanilla’ Roberts has edged closer to her ultimate goal.
Roberts claimed her eight title with her song, ‘I am 592,’ making her the artiste to have recorded the most wins thus far.
“It feels good to have won again. My ultimate goal is ten,” Roberts told Stabroek Weekend. “I just wanted to set a record and especially being female as well because most of the times, in various competitions, we have a lot of male winners,” she explained.
The idea for the song, she noted, came to mind after she competed at last year’s Soca Monarch Competition.
Roberts recalled driving along the road when the idea came to mind. As instantly as she thought it, she made a U-turn and headed back to the Kross Kolor Records studio, which she manages, and made a note of it. Late last year, she co-composed this piece with the Chief Executive Officer of Kross Kolor, Burchmore Simon, who is also one of her longstanding writers.
Officially, the singer is usually booked for the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) Mash Band but was also asked to be part of the Heritage Band this year. As a result, the Mashramani parade saw her singing for the bands and also pulling the MNR float. How did she manoeuvre this? She explains that because the bands went into D’Urban Park at different intervals, she was able to go ahead with the MNR band and return to join the Heritage Band.
Apart from her success in the Road March competition, Roberts also placed third in the Soca Monarch Competition, where the title has eluded her over the years. Roberts noted that while the Guyanese public does the voting for the winner of the Road March competition, the winner of the Soca Monarch Competition is declared by a small panel of judges. Why she hasn’t yet copped the title, she said, remains a mystery to her and something she has been trying to put her finger on, as she puts it.
Roberts noted that she overheard one of the judges saying that “Vanilla had the best presentation, best costume, best this, and best that” and added that it boggled her mind why, if she has the best everything or even if she failed in one area but still managed to rank the best in the other categories, she hadn’t yet become the monarch. Nonetheless, she was not too worried about it and said that she hoped that as soon as she can put her finger on what is preventing her from winning the monarchy, she would be able to make whatever change needed to be made to achieve success.
According to Roberts, the artist that she is today is much different from the one she was just five years ago. In the years prior, Roberts put more effort into developing the artistes who walked into Kross Kolor Records, while forgetting to put as much emphasis on her on career. Since she began paying more attention to “Vanilla the artiste,” she has gained a wider fan base, and gaining more success.
‘A bold character’
Roberts also admits to a secret behind her Road March wins, which has been longstanding and certainly longer than five years. She admits to have a secret formula she has been using for these wins, while noting that colleague and fellow artiste Adrian Dutchin, a five-time Road March King who worked closely along with Kross Kolor, would have benefitted from this “formula”. What she has done is tweaked these same strategies used for Dutchin for herself. While she didn’t go into the specifics, Roberts did share that part of it is mixing with her fans whenever she performs as well as merging a bit of Melissa Roberts with “Vanilla” when performing. Melissa Roberts, she confided, is the opposite of Vanilla onstage, while explaining that although she personally shies away from the crowd and prefers to stay at home or go to the movies instead of clubbing, “Vanilla” is more of a bold character who mixes and mingles. In regards to merging the two personalities, Roberts has begun socialising more, while “Vanilla” has entertained the genuine quality Melissa has to offer that has allowed for her songs to be more relatable, thereby offering a more sincere side of her.
Over the weekend, a remix, dubbed ‘592 Voices,’ reworking Robert’s original song ‘One Voice,’ saw a fusion of the vocals of Soca and Chutney artistes. Sometime last year the artiste released ‘One Voice’, a unity song in which she paraded in the video wearing attires representing the six ethnicities in Guyana. Because of racial divide, she called for Guyanese to come together as a nation. The song caught the attention of Nigel Worrell, who praised her on the lyrics of the song. Then, in wake of the recent unrest in the country in wake of the elections, Worrell again contacted her to do a remix of the song, this time with the contestants of the Soca Monarch Competition and Chutney Monarch Competition. The other artistes in the song, she noted, wasted no time in coming together to do the song as everyone else shared the pain of all that Guyana would have suffered during the course of the elections week. Only one of the fourteen artistes, she said, could not make it.
Chutney Monarch Bunty Singh was unable to make the trip due to unrests in Berbice but his commitment to getting the song done saw him writing a part of the song, recording his vocals and sending it to the studio. The Kross Kolor team took clips of a previous song he would have done and incorporated into the song. Among those who contributing towards the lyrics of the song as well were artistes Kwasi Ace, Alabama, and Lyrical. “Because we competed against each other, we wanted to show that even though you’re competing, you can still come together for one common cause, which was to stop this racism nonsense. We’re Guyanese, Let’s just be Guyanese and leave politics to the politicians. There’s nothing wrong about being on the opposite sides of the fence. Why do we have to be pulling and tugging at each other like that? We can be better people. Let’s try to be better people,” Roberts said.
A native of Hopetown, West Coast Berbice, Roberts first began working in administration with Kross Kolor. Her career in music didn’t kick off until Michelle ‘Big Red’ King told her one day that she couldn’t be working with the recording studio and not singing. The popular artiste noted that while other local artistes would have encouraged her from time to time to give singing a try, King’s statement felt more of a challenge and for someone who fancies challenges, she picked up the mic. This would have been sometime in 2007.
The best part of her career, Roberts said, has been the opportunity to be among children. For someone who is mindful of a genuine quality, she finds this the most in children. “This is why I try my best to be a role model for them, which is why, also, if you look at my videos, I careful of what I put out there [especially to] stay away from the explicit side”, Roberts said. Whenever invited to schools to perform for them, she does so with great pride she had let on.
Former acting President for the Give Another Chance Foundation, Roberts worked with the group towards providing lesser fortunate children with necessities. Though she no longer hold this position due to her demanding agenda, it doesn’t prevent her from volunteering from time to time.
A day in the life of Roberts finds her waking up at 5:25, five minutes before her alarm goes off. She heads to gym for a workout session, then returns home to cook for herself, while noting that she takes care to have two stews instead of one, including lots of vegetables and nuts in between. She is also a fitness instructor at Space Gym, where she teaches aerobics, Zumba and strength training four days a week. Sometime between working out at the gym in the morning and being a fitness instructor in the afternoons, Roberts is at Kross Kolor Records working on her music, managing other artistes, and editing and/or directing films. On weekends she prefers to go to the movies.
Currently Roberts is working on new songs that are expected to be released in time for carnival as well as a film script for a short film she will be shooting. In the meantime she has her heart set on making the record of being Road March Queen ten times adding that it is not a matter of ‘if’ it happens but only a matter of ‘when’, and when it does only then will she take a break in road march competitions.
