Love and passion describes the feeling you get after having a conversation with this poised and confident beauty. Meet reggae singer Chanti-I. Born Chantelle Alisha Smith in the city of London, where she spent the first few years of her life. At age ten, she moved to Jamaica with her mother leaving behind the fast paced city lifestyle and her birth country, England, to live in the cool climate parish of Mandeville located centrally in the lovely island of Jamaica. After settling into the relative new but familiar culture she continued to further her educational growth at the De Carteret College in Mandeville where she completed her tertiary schooling and practiced her talent in the schools choir.
In the year 2004, the brave sixteen year old, accompanied by a fellow musical acquaintance known as Ras I Wah left for Kingston to enter and compete in the popular televised talent competition “Digicel Rising Stars”, which has been over the years integral in extracting young and promising talent from the unknown making them recognizably famous. Her first efforts in such a mega talent search production landed the duo the 5th place position in the competition after the long and rivaling battle of talent of over 50 competitors.
Since then, she has matured into a soulful young woman, equally adept as a lyricist as she is a vocalist, Chanti-I lists among the greats on her list of influences are, the King himself Bob Marley and reggae crooner Beres Hammond. Rooting herself even further into the competitive business and lifestyle of music, Chanti-I moved to further her vocal and musical training at the acclaimed Edna Manley College of Performing Arts in Kingston.
She has done background vocals for the likes of Beres Hammond, Richie Spice, Konshens and Cocoa Tea of which on many occasions she was easily granted open act privileges on their shows all over the world. Chanti-I is now focusing on her career as a solo artist and is in the studio writing and recording. She has performed at the well-known Christopher’s Jazz Cafe, the 11th Annual Upliftment Jamaica Gala in St. Thomas, the Trench Town Rock Music Festival and the 15th Anniversary Edition of the Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival 2011. She was most recently granted opening act privileges for International Superstar Jeffrey Osbourne at his most recent performance in Jamaica. . She is looking forward to big things in 2011, given the positive feedback and level of airplay that her recently released single “My Desire”, has been receiving. This is the first of many from her soon to be completed album. She continues her musical journey to become that rising star, join her along this journey as she converts the ultimate dream into a reality.
VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9xqLoV6EOU
