Singer and guitarist Cassie Adams created such a presence on the Guyana Talent Search show that she earned herself a spot in the final and was in the end, announced one of ten winners. Up until the show, music was a hobby for Cassie but she is now looking at a career in the industry.
Though the surrealness of winning has waned, the singer said she feels privileged to have been afforded the opportunity of competing in the first place. Cassie pointed out that with all of the talent she was up against, she was shocked to have been named one of the winners.
Preoccupied with school and work, it was not Cassie who entered her video for the competition. Her close friend Kellisha Edwards, after learning of the competition, was adamant about Cassie entering and motivated Cassie to put together a video for the audition. Cassie, Kellisha and another friend had started a YouTube channel with them singing covers in August last year. Kellisha knew how talented she was and took the initiative to send the video in. Cassie subsequently received the call informing her that she was accepted as a competitor.
Music has always been in the foreground for the young woman whose father and her paternal relatives have always been musically inclined and had a band called Live Wire. By the age of eight, she was singing at the Holy Spirit Catholic Church, which she said was always a place where she could relax and be at peace, but getting involved in music provided another avenue for her to connect with God more. One day, her father taught her to play a few chords on the guitar and the rest she subsequently taught herself.
Cassie recalled when she entered the competition how shy she was and how much it has helped with her being bolder. The change did not go unnoticed by others, including one of the hosts of the show, Feliz Robertson, who
mentioned it to Cassie.
Cassie said she was not expecting how time-consuming the show was. She had the notion that all that would be required of the contestants was that they continually send videos of their performances and a winner would be chosen eventually. Cassie works at GTM and is a second year University of Guyana student pursuing studies in entrepreneur-ship and that was enough commitment. When she learnt of the nature of the competition and all it entailed, she knew she had signed up for a lot, but Cassie was not about to back down.
There were days when the 23-year-old was unable to attend classes because she had to be present at the National Cultural Centre for rehearsals. “We had to go there almost every week to get ourselves prepared, to rehearse, to acquaint ourselves with the production team and prepare speeches and that was when I truly realized that being an artiste takes a lot more than just singing. It requires you to know about the business, it requires you to know how to market yourself as an artiste and how to network with other artistes and other people in the industry,” shared Cassie.
Despite all it took, it was one of the highlights of the year for the singer. Other finalists featured in The Scene had said that she had made their journey on the show a pleasant one. Fellow contestant Logan Simpson named Cassie his favourite competitor adding that whenever his nerves got the better of him, he made her his focal point to get through his performance easier.
Bonding with the contestants was one of the best parts of the show for Cassie as she said that she bonded with all of the contestants, particularly Quanisha Patterson and Nia Allen. “It was really good energy all around. Everyone was supporting one another especially given the fact that the majority of contestants were teenagers or in their early 20s… the comment section [on Facebook] was not as endearing as we’d like sometimes. We encouraged one another. We’re not just doing this to appease anybody but we’re doing this to face our fears, we’re doing this to challenge ourselves and become a better version of ourselves. Being one of the elder contestants, I guessed the younger ones gravitated towards me as well as I did to them and we created a friendship that even to this day, we still talk. This is definitely something I’ll never forget,” shared the singer.
The Flag Raising Ceremony, Cassie noted, was her favourite as she got to connect more with the contestants. It was also a new experi-ence for her as the production team requested that she not use her guitar and just perform using her voice. She learnt to play the guitar when she was 14. After graduating from the Bishops’ High School, she had more time on her hands and improved on this skill.
During the competition, Cassie was seen playing a wine red guitar that matched the dress she wore. Asked if she had more than one guitar and used that one to match her dress, Cassie said if she got a ‘Granger’ ($5,000) for every time someone asked her that question, she would be rich. The guitarist shared that on that night she was preparing to get on stage for her performance the strings on her guitar burst. She panicked but shared that she was saved by the lead guitarist of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports band who loaned her his guitar for her performance. Coincidentally, or as Cassie believes, God stepped in, and it turned out to be one that matched her dress.
One of the biggest challenges for Cassie was when she contracted COVID. Following Round One of the semifinals, the ministry had announced that due to someone contracting the virus, Round Two was postponed until further notice. Cassie shared that it was her. It was really a trying time for the young woman who shared that at one point she was having problems breathing. “I was frustrated… It was very scary with all the deaths and cases rising. I was concerned that other contestants might have gotten COVID too or their families. I was worried that I worked so hard in this competition and now I have to give it all up but thankfully the ministry was very, very concerned; they always checked up on me. They were like ‘everybody deserves a chance’ and they gave me a little time to recover. One of the hardest things with COVID was that it was very hard to breathe; it felt like if a truck was on my chest. I did a lot of breathing exercises. I kept doubling up on my vitamin Cs, my zinc, my lemongrass tea… The week when I had gotten cleared that I could return to the NCC for rehearsals, they set aside the National Cultural Centre just for me. They took precautions not to put anybody else at risk,” shared the singer.
For the final of the competition, Cassie did a medley of two songs finishing her performance with a cover of Jamaican Tessanne Chin’s “Hideaway”. The singer pleasantly surprised just about everyone when she rapped part of the song. Reggae, she said, was her father’s favourite, noting that she had become well acquainted with the genre as a girl growing up.
Since the competition Cassie has performed at the ministry’s Emancipation Show where she shared the stage with singers like Samuel Medas and Calvin Burnette. Cassie has also sung and played her guitar at several events including a wedding.
She has also taken up songwriting and is currently working on original pieces she hopes to release by early next year. One of the songs she is writing is about a girl who had always been insecure but found herself along the way; really the song is inspired by her journey so far.
The singer noted that she would like to see more done in the music industry especially when it comes to music being introduced in more schools. She added that Guyana does well in grooming children to one day become lawyers and doctors, and as such can provide a curriculum that not only teaches children the artform of music but also the business of it so that they can have a livelihood in the industry.
Cassie can be followed on Facebook at Dear Cassandra. The page’s purpose is to detail her journey in the music industry.
