At just 19 years old, Christina Livia Dottin is already making major moves in Crop Over.
Her words power Anderson Blood Armstrong’s Certified Feter, one of the biggest releases for the season so far. The singer/songwriter said the song was originally meant for another artiste, who thought it was a bit too slow for her vibe. Blood was able to realise its star power.
“Blood said he wanted it and thought it was a good concept,” she explained. The veteran musician played around with the beat and sped up the song from its original 120 beats per minute.
Last Friday’s Crop Over preview was the first time the song was sung on a large stage since its May release.
“. . . And the crowd loved it,” she told to WEEKEND?BUZZ excitedly.
“By the [song’s] bridge, the crowd was singing the song with him. I felt so good to know that Blood was singing my song and the crowd was loving it.”
The former Garrison Secondary (now Graydon Sealy School) student discovered her songwriting talent around the age of eight, inspired by the Junior Monarch competition she was watching on television. Livia has always nurtured her singing ability, though mostly in the R&B genre. At 17 she tried soca and now thrives on the vibe.
“When I first started I did soca because it was an opening for me to get in the music industry. When I really got into it, the vibe I got was always like a party . . . . I think it is just in my blood as a Caribbean person.”
Despite her love of the art form, the mass communications student at the Barbados Community College student says she has already realised ladies had to put in an extra effort to be recognised.
“As a female artiste it feels like you have to work harder. First things first, guys can come out and sing things that . . . are just for fun, but girls have to come out and sing something sexy,” she said.
“Last year, a lot of people were telling me to be sexier on stage. I [wore] short pants and stuff, but I did not feel like me . . .”.
However, Livia was more than determined to stand out.
“It is really hard to come out against the guys, but you have to have that mentality that you come out to work, and men and women are on the same level.”
