Ladies and gents, the versatile Miss Chelsea Stewart

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Toronto’s own Chelsea Stewart has released her first album; the self-titled project is an eleven-track musical map that takes the listener back in time and up to the time with a touch of musical variety Jamaican style.

This album from the Juno nominated singer can be described as a musical history lesson of sorts. Beginning with nyabinghi drumming and dub poetry, moving on to mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, and dancehall. Having a mother and daughter co-writing on a reggae album is unique, but then so is Chelsea, who wore many hats when making this album which she wrote, co-produced, arranged and also creatively directed.

Chelsea’s album boasts some of the biggest names in the business like the legendary Jamaican drum and bass duo Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, not to mention the extraordinarily talented Paul ‘Wrong Move’ Crosdale and Franklyn Bubbla’ Waul. Representing Canada was Joseph Graham, Theo Patterson, Odel Johnson, Evan Porter, Nichol Robertson, Danny Maestro, and Renee Brown.

Toronto Caribbean Newspaper had the privilege of speaking to this talented young lady in South Africa where she is touring with her new album. Stewart told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper “As long as I can remember I have always wanted to be a professional singer and I know that those singers have full-length albums. That’s their stamp on the industry in a way, so I always wanted to do this to represent who I am as an artist via a body of work.” There is a much talked about song on the album called the Lemonade Stand. When asked to describe this, the young singer said, “My mom wrote the majority of that one, it is like coming to a promised land only to realize that it is not as great as you thought it would be and you are left wondering what the next step is.”

When asked how her African tour is progressing Stewart replied, “So far I have performed in four different countries and it is a blessing because I have always wanted to come to Africa, so the fact that I get to be here and do what I love is a beautiful thing.” She told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper “My favorite city is Johannesburg in this place called Carnival City where I performed in front of 5,000 people who have never heard of me before, but they ended up singing along with me, it was like having 5,000 back-up singers.”

For folks in Toronto who are looking to catch a performance of this young Canadian singer, this will happen in March 2020 when she will appear in an intimate evening with Chelsea Stewart. The singer told Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, “The music is like medicine to me, it is therapeutic.”  When asked how it feels to sing songs written by her mom, she replied, “I take pride in doing so, it is sentimental.”

Even though she is young, the singer had some wise words for up and coming singers, “Perform as much as you can to make sure that this is what you really want to do, and to get over that fear of performing. Definitely do not give up, because the road is not always easy. If you can, record yourself and shop your stuff around, because that’s how I started off with my mom, don’t sit around and wait for help, get up and do it.”

Stewart has been performing since the age of nine, and together with her mom Karen Stewart has her own production company that is called Baby Momma Music. Chelsea Stewart’s debut reggae album is available to purchase now on CDBaby, Tidal, Itunes, Spotify, Deezer, and all other music platforms.