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Jenieve sings ‘Hallelujah’ - Toots’ daughter drops gospel single

Published:Tuesday | November 17, 2020 | 12:12 AM
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Pall-bearers carry the coffin bearing the body of late reggae icon, Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert during the interment service at the National Heroes Park in Kingston on Sunday. Hibbert’s daughter, Jenieve Hibbert-Bailey, said she is happy her father got
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Pall-bearers carry the coffin bearing the body of late reggae icon, Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert during the interment service at the National Heroes Park in Kingston on Sunday. Hibbert’s daughter, Jenieve Hibbert-Bailey, said she is happy her father got the send-off he deserves.
Jenieve Hibbert-Bailey.
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Jenieve Hibbert-Bailey.
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For years, gospel singer Jenieve Hibbert-Bailey has been breaking barriers with her versatility, and having taken a hiatus of sorts, she feels it is time to let her voice be heard.

The songwriter has decided to channel her energy into the area of contemporary gospel, and has taken the plunge with a brand new single. Released last Friday, and distributed through VPAL on all digital online platforms, Hallelujah is her praise.

“I was going through a very difficult and challenging time in my life, and so I wanted to encourage myself as well as others not to give up, but to find a praise,” Bailey, who is also the daughter of the late reggae legend Toots Hibbert, told The Gleaner.

Hallelujah was recorded for an upcoming album which she hopes to release in 2021. Contemporary gospel is an updated, polished version of traditional gospel with newly written songs that sound similar to urban music.

“My father listened to it, gave me his opinions on the composition and background vocals, and he liked it. Parts of the song include a phrase ‘I say yea’ which is taken from 54-46, one of my dad’s most popular songs, and also Bam Bam, another crowd favourite,” the singer, who is a devout Christian, said.

Jenieve was a foundation member of the group 54-46, along with her sisters, Leba and Melanie.

She was nominated for Best Reggae Album for her work on her father’s Reggae Got Soul: Unplugged On Strawberry Hill in 2012. She received Best Female Gospel Vocalist awards from JAMMY and the JFM in the 1990s. She also won a Canadian Omega award with her husband Robert for Best Gospel Duo in 2012.

One of the featured acts on ‘Tribute to An Icon’ that aired on Sunday to honour the memory of her father, Jenieve expressed delight that the tribute at the National Heroes Park in downtown Kingston went so well.

“This was the send-off that my father truly deserved, a tribute fit for a king,” she said.

Toots died at the University Hospital of the West Indies on September 11, nearly two weeks after falling ill.

Among the other icons interred at the National Heroes Park are reggae singer Dennis Brown, Olympian Herb McKinley, artist Edna Manley, folklorist Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou) and actor Ranny Williams. The location is also where Pan African giant and National Hero Marcus Garvey is buried, as well as former Prime Ministers Michael Manley and Edward Seaga.