Buju Banton's Former Background Vocalist Launches A Solo Career

Nicky Burt’s passion for singing might give her the big break that she has been awaiting for sometime now. The former cabaret singer who has done background work for Buju Banton, has stepped out of the shadows to chart her very own course. And the journey for her has been a hectic one.

Burt, who is currently under the guidance of Donovan Germain’s Penthouse label, scored a radio hit with stable mate Assassin on "Nobody Else." The song was recently released by Penthouse and is featured on the compilation album Dancehall 2004. "Nobody Else" reached number five on the Mega Jamz Top 10 Singers chart in Jamaica, and peaked at number 18 on Richie B’s Hit List Top 20 chart, which is published in XNews each week.

"Singing is something that I always wanted to do. There wasn’t anything else that I had planned on getting involved in," Burt confessed. With musical influences ranging from Marcia Griffiths, Judy Mowatt, Cynthia Schloss, to Whitney Houston, Kelly Price, Anita Baker and India Arie, the Port Antonio native honed her craft while attending high school.

"While I was attending Titchfield High School I was involved in a group called Fresh. After I finished high school, I relocated to Ocho Rios where I did a stint on the cabaret circuit. I was working with the resident band called Solid Sound at one of the island’s top hotels. Later on I went to Negril to do cabaret work at DeBuss," she explained.

Burt would later abandon the cabaret circuit and moved to Kingston. She wanted a career change. "I wanted to concentrate on a recording career. You have to be out there to get your career going. The closer you are to the environment, the better you are," Burt pointed out.

Burt made her recording debut with a cover of "Morning, Noon and Night" while she was still in her teenage years. Singing professionally for eight years now, she later recorded "Nobody Cares," "Lovers Plane" and "I Don’t Know" with Rich Kid for the Ingredience label.

Burt hooked up with the Penthouse label when she joined Buju Banton on his North American and European tour last year as a background vocalist. "After the tour was finished last year, I decided to do some work with Penthouse. The first song I did for them was 'Wrong Number’ which was featured on the Riddim Driven various artistes compilation disc ‘Mr. Brown Meets Number One.' Among the most recent songs that I have done for Penthouse is ‘How Long’ on the ‘some like it hot’ rhythm," said Burt.

At Sting 2003, Burt performed her combination song "Nobody Else" with Assassin. She said the experience was a good one, and she liked the response that the song got from the patrons.

In terms of what she brings to the table as recording artiste, Burt said "I like to sing songs based on reality and songs that people can relate to. The stage is not new to me, because I have been doing this for a while now."

Kevin Jackson is an entertainment writer and publicist from Kingston, Jamaica. He is a freelance writer for the Jamaica Observer and Excess publications.