Outlook WriterGolden-eyed, golden skinned, Nadine Sutherland is about to give birth. Again. She is thrilled about it, and so will be her fans who have had a 10-year wait since Sutherland's last conception - the album called Nadine which was released in 1997.
Her new album, Call my Name will be out on April 3.
She told Outlook, "I am pretty excited about what it represents. It is a good barometer of who I am and where I am.
"It's a great artistic expression. It encompasses everything I would like it to be," says Sutherland, who has been recording since age 11, and is best known internationally for her successful single, Action, done in 1993 with Terror Fabulous.
According to Nadine, she is a country girl who has made good.
Born in Kingston in 1968, Nadine Sutherland and her siblings were taken to Above Rocks in St. Catherine by her parents.
"I grew up there carrying water on my head and walking miles to school. The foundation of who I am is rooted in the country."
But, Nadine loved to dance and sing, and at age nine she won the Tastee Talent Contest, securing a recording contract with Tuff Gong Studios.
a hit at age 11
She released her first song, Starvation, in 1980 at age 11. It was a hit and helped to launch the young singer as a solo performer.
Her parents carefully managed her career and ordered her to cool it while attending St. Andrew High School for Girls. Later, they sent her to college. Known as reggae's 'Teen Queen' in the '80s, she paused her career to study business administration.
Afterwards, it was back to music.
Sutherland performed outside of Jamaica for the first time in 1982, at a memorial concert for Bob Marley, alongside Ziggy Marley and The Melody Makers, the I-Threes and the Wailers.
In the late '80s when Gussie Clarke launched his hi-tech, digital roots and dancehall sound/studio, Nadine's voice began to be heard with some regularity on 'bashment style' hits alongside new stars like Buju Banton, Mad Cobra, Terror Fabulous and Spragga Benz.
In early '90s she worked with Donovan Germaine at his Penthouse studios, breaking it big with the 1993 international hit, Action. Coupled with this were other solo hits of 1993, including Baby Face and Wicked and Wild.
Action, produced for Mad House, became a worldwide reggae dancehall anthem on its release in 1993. The single has succeeded beyond all expectations, continuing to be a favourite play at parties overseas.
"Action was recently rated as the Number 19 duet of all time by Vibe magazine. I am on top of the world," Sutherland says with a laugh. "I feel great," the artiste adds.
Although Action was produced 13 years ago, it is still opening doors for the artiste.
Her last album, Nadine (1997), was not released in the United States and not really promoted, Sutherland says.
In 2000, Nadine began to pursue another love of hers - the passion for fitness. Now she is a certified fitness instructor.
It started, she said, when Dion Millwood of Body Basics suggested that she help out, and crystallised in New York when an aerobics instructor saw her dancing and suggested that she teach two classes each week.
Fitness was a natural fit, because of her love of dancing.
"Dancing is really my first love. I don't think people really understand how much I love it. There (were) nasty slanders saying that my stint in aerobics was because I was broke and washed up. It was my passion for dancing. Aerobics was just an extension of that."
When Sutherland was small, she danced to the rhythms of the Alvin Haley Dance Troupe and adored the National Dance Theatre Company dancers.
"I was a big fan of Patsy Ricketts. My passion for dancing has been misunderstood. I really thought at one time that I would be a dancer and not a singer."
Nadine, who might have been on track to the Juilliard School of Dance, Drama and Music, were she born elsewhere, says she has no regrets. She believes in fate.
unfavourable mindset
In Jamaica, she has not been unaware of the unfavourable reggae dancehall female mindset (which says that women don't have far to go in the business).
She responds, she says, by acting "as if it does not exist. I really don't care. My fans look at me as an excellent artist, not just a female.
"There is something you have to evaluate, why certain people have different challenges. I personally do not believe that life is unfair. Eastern philosophies say that you live out your karma. I personally believe that you cannot invalidate that."
The last decade, she says, has been spent working on a number of projects, some of which are yet to come to fruition, while others, like Rising Stars, have gone beyond all expectations.
About Rising Stars - a local television show which features new talents - she says, "Everyone who did it did not expect what it turned out to be."
It was while working on a yet-to-be-published album for Penthouse Records that she was asked to participate in the show. She opted to do it in her 'free time'.
It was only after the Emancipation Park debacle, in which fans turned out in their thousands, that the organisers really knew how big the show had become.
"We now understand what we have on our hands."
For Nadine, the year 2006 was simply a year in which everything was over the top.
She reflects that Call my Name came together rather quickly, starting with one single done for 876-Records last year. "It just flowed."
The album was started and completed between Rising Stars obligations. The first video for the album ( in which she dances) was previewed on Entertainment Report recently to an enthusiastic response.
In between promoting her new album in the next year, she hopes to remain with the exciting project that Rising Stars has become.
Personally, she has set herself the mission of improving her social life by going out more. "I was engaged but I am now disengaged," she discloses with a self-satisfied laugh.
'homely person'
She explains, "I am a very homely person. I do not like a lot of 'ray ray'. I can differentiate my life between the entertainment aspect and my private person. I don't allow my head to be inflated. But, I can still see where balance is needed.
" I need to go out more and work on my kind of shyness. Some people think I am arrogant, but the truth is that I am shy."
She is an introvert offstage, but Sutherland really enjoys family.
"I just went to my mother's 60th birthday party in the country and had a really good time. As usual, people got drunk and said some really ridiculous things. I am comfortable with family - in my comfort zone, but I need to step out more."
In relation to her career, she says, "I feel a sense of gratitude and thankfulness. I have been around (as an artiste) since age nine. Jamaica has given me that. It has made me everything I am. I would also like to thank the spirit of Bob Marley. Because of him, this country girl was given a baton."
Reaching for the stars, Nadine is still up and running.
photos by Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer
Nadine
Sutherland
Country crooner, reggae queen
Contributed
'Some people think I am arrogant, but the truth is that I am shy.'
Nadine
Sutherland
