- COLIN HAMILTON/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
Assassin at a video shoot on West King's House Road in March. Ce'Cile named him among the few well-toned male dancehall performers.Kavelle Anglin-Christie, Staff Reporter
NEWS JUST in: 'The show is over before the fat lady sings.'
Artistes have always been under immense pressure to please fans with their sultry voices and intense performances, but many are under even more pressure to become their fans' ultimate fantasy - and having flab isn't a part of the deal.
Dancehall artiste Ce'Cile says being overweight is a detractor from any performer's career.
"Nobody thinks about having sex with a big fat mampy ... People are thinking about the Beyoncé, Ciara, Ne-Yo and Usher. You've got to get your sexy on ...You don't want to be all fat and flabby, you want people to fantasise about you," she said.
Ce'Cile's comment may seem harsh and even unnecessary, but she has a point. Overweight artistes are often chastised for their looks and feel the strain of public scrutiny, though they may be leading the pack with talent, thus giving credence to the claims that more often than not, talent just isn't enough.
Take a look at rap artiste, Missy Elliot, singer, Kelly Price, rapper, Biz Markie and Jamaica's own Bling Dawg. When they first appeared they were much heavier, but gradually the pounds went off to further their careers and to also make them healthier.
SNEAK A PEEK
It's bizarre to think that fans would turn out to a concert just to sneak a peek at Ce'Cile's sleek legs and trail Cobra's chiselled frame, but Ce'Cile says they actually do.
"Nobody wants to see a fat Sean Paul running on stage, nobody wants to see a fat Junior Gong, and that's just a fact," she says.
"You want to see my shows in Europe. All 700 man up front. But what I hate is the fact that I will work out so hard and then I will see a picture of myself and it looks so wrong. I am 114 pounds, my God, show me looking nice and sexy," she says.
Ce'Cile too, recently, re-emerged with a trim figure after losing a few pounds and says although it wasn't 'that much' her fans approach her and ask her for weight-loss advice.
"One time a lady came up to me and was like 'Ce'Cile, tell me what you did to look like that' and I was like I don't know what to tell you because I was never your size. So she was like 'Ce'Cile a lie you a tell, me see you pon TV'," she said.
Ce'Cile says she maintains her 114 pounds because she is an artiste. "Yes that's the reason. Maybe if I was a regular person it wouldn't be a big deal, but I've always been a small person so I've never had to maintain that drastic weight."
REGULAR PEOPLE
"Regular people can be fat. This is my opinion, I don't want to fantasise about a Ruben Studdard singing Sorry 2004, but I will fantasise about a Fifty Cent and his Candy Shop. But locally, if I were to fantasise about anyone, it would be Delano from Renaissance or Tony Matterhorn," she said.
Irrespective of whom Ce'Cile would fantasise about, it's obvious she thinks female artistes are under more strain than their male counterparts to aesthetically please fans.
"In dancehall music there are more men in the dance so no one wants to see a fat and sour woman singing about 'what me do with males'; it's just not going to come across good. My girlfriends and I admire a few male Jamaican artistes. We look at the looks and body and very few artistes are preserving their sexy," she said.
"Cobra has a good body. There is Assassin; oh Lord, there are so few ... Shaggy and there is Da'Ville, who is shining real hard in the body department. The females having their sexy on, like Tami, Jovie and Spice, I don't know if she's working out, but she's doing her thing," she said.
Singer Tessanne Chin disagrees with all those who feel artistes should fit a particular mould to be successful.
"We have allowed the industry to dictate what we look like. Artistes and people have contributed to it. Approximately 80 per cent of the business is based on looks alone and in most cases it doesn't matter if you can sing because people allow the looks to overshadow the talent," she said.
POLAR OPPOSITES
Chin is the sister of singer, Tami Chynn. The two not only polar opposites with their singing styles, but also their looks. Tessanne is heavier and sings rock, while Tami is slimmer and sings R&B and dancehall.
Chin says some have tried to pressure her into the stereotypical slim-is-in-artiste frame, but she isn't having any of it.
"Oh God yeah. I am not like the kind of girl that fits into a box, literally or otherwise. I have always been on the chubby side and if I decide to lose weight, it will be for me and not because my career depends on it. If someone decides to lose weight because it is better for them and it's for health reasons then that's fine, but not simply because it's acceptable," she says.
Chin says the industry contributes to artistes and the average person's self-image and that isn't the way it should be.
"I will not try to dictate to anyone what they should do, but I'm first and foremost a musician. I'm a musician first and not a model," Chin said.
Sex sells, and that's a fact in the music industry. Changing your once raunchy image to a more conservative one can cause fans to drift and this was what happened to dancehall artiste Spragga Benz and some female fans when he became a Rastafarian and started to cover up.
Like his Red Square protégé Assassin, Spragga was once one of dancehall's sex symbols, but he says this was unintentional.
"Back in the day people used to get the thing twisted, right. When I would perform the clothes would stick to me because of the sweat; me sweat hard, so me tek it off," he laughed. "But when me see the reactions, me start mek a conscious effort not to take it off. Now me haffi deh suffer in the wet clothes," he continued, laughing.
"But being in shape and being physically fit gives you a better performance," he said.
Spragga spoke of some female fans drifting. "Them time deh it was more sexual. Now dem get the real person and you can't really draw them," he said.
Nonetheless, any curious soul would wonder how he kept those pecks tidy and if he still does. Spragga says "I have a lot of sex. It exercises your lower abs, which are hard to reach".
Sunday Gleaner: Oh my God ... That was too much information.
Spragga (laughing): "I still exercise a lot.
SG: Still too much information.
Spragga: Oh, I'm sorry.
Spragga says female artistes face even more pressure to be sexy.
"Yeah, that's because more people fantasise about that. People are going to say the fat artiste naw get no whole heap of 'rrr' - dat's new slang now man - the man dem naw go fi dat like how dem will go fi a Mya or a Lady Saw sexy type of thing. Sex sells for women," he says.
So why don't men face as much pressure? Spragga says: "It naw sell fi a man unless you're a gigolo or something."
SIMILAR PRESSURE
However, singer, Anthony Cruz sees things a different way. He says male and female artistes face similar pressure and female fans will go to show just to see a male artiste they love.
"Women like nice things and nice looking things and the way you dress sells you. So when a woman sees a cute guy they are usually like 'aaaaah! aaaah!' Image sells and appearance is what you see first," he said.
Cruz has always been known for three things - his smooth voice, shaved head and broad chest. He says he works out because he wants to and his female fans love it.
"It's not only in dancehall, but your sex appeal it's for the women. Because look at Fifty Cent; is just him body the girls talk about. So the girls do go out just to see your body," he says.
Still, if that's the case, does he strip down at his shows? "Nah sah. Is mostly singing and getting my message across. Maybe one of these days I'll take off my jacket," he said.
