Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer

Songbird Regina Belle sings her way into the hearts of many patrons during the Port Royal Music Festival, 'The Main Show', held at Port Royal Entertainment Centre, Port Royal, Kingston, on Saturday, September 8.- Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer

WESTERN BUREAU:

As a child, the Grammy-award winning singer Regina Belle sat watching her mother's television and said "Mom, you see that. One day you are going to see me on that".

Not only did the prolific and engaging vocalist accomplish the promise made to Lois Belle, but she also showed class as a musician, taking her renowned vocal magic to the summit.

"I am so thankful to God, and I am aware that it wasn't my goodness that He gave me a daughter like Regina," were the words from the proud mother, as she sat in the Air Jamaica first class lounge at the Norman Manley International Airport on Sunday morning.

Lois Belle was elated, having witnessed the impressive reception received by her 'baby come to me' daughter on Saturday night as she delivered a scintillating and spine-tingling performance at the Port Royal Music Festival at the Port Royal Entertainment Centre. "She went back to the old times, when she was a much younger girl," Lois Belle said.

The chart topper, who released her first song in 1987, was as fresh and exciting as she was 20 years ago. She had, in no uncertain terms, attained a feat that many of today's singers have no hope of achieving.

who is who

"There are some (artistes) who will be able to do just as well as I have, but I think we have so many who sound too much alike. It has become difficult to say who is who," said Regina Belle.

Growing up in an era commanded by the likes of Michelle 'Pepsi' Rolley, Shirley Murdoch and Mickey Howard, Belle said all of her contemporaries had their own identity and sound, "So do Sade, Whitney Houston and Toni Braxton," she said.

The Rutgers University graduate who studied opera and jazz and trombone, tuba and steel pan at Dwight Morrow High School, said that nowadays, there is a lack of study of the music. "I think that that is the problem, because if we don't study, our vocabulary becomes limited. We have to take the time out to do those things, so that when we get ready to go on stage and into the studio, we have a lot to pull from and a lot to entertain from," Belle said.

Belle said the audience she cares about it is being short-changed by artistes who give them less than they deserve. "Very few of the artistes out today can go to a smaller club and can play there from a Thursday to a Sunday. It's not just about the large theatre, because there comes a time when the records aren't selling. Can you still make a living based on the music you made?" she questioned.

In the same breath, she commits never to compromise her music. "I believe that my name precedes me the minute I walk through a door," Belle said.

claim to fame

According to the A Whole New World singer, after 20 years in the industry, if people still come out to see you, they come because they know you are not going to shortchange them. "The important thing is to make people leave not the same way they came in. And that has been my claim to fame; I never compromise myself or my audience," Belle said.

Belle, a devoted Christian who plans to work on a gospel album next year, said this was something she longed for all her life. "This is just a small token to say thank you to God, because He has been very good to me," she said.

The mother of five, four girls and a boy, first came to Jamaica as a background singer with The Manhattans in 1985. Reminiscing on those days, she paid tribute to the group and its leader Winford 'Blue' Lovette.

"They taught me professionalism, musicianship. Blue to me was the personality of the group; he taught me the ropes on how to have a rapport with the audience, that it's not just about being able to sing and it's the capability of talking to the audience. When you come out on stage, you don't necessarily have to blow their mind with what you have on," she said.

But even before her encounter with The Manhattans, Regina Belle was blowing the minds of those she came into contact with, as the words 'can't' and 'not good enough' were discarded from her vocabulary.

"Believe it or not, at age 12 I was on my mom's church choir. I wanted to be on the senior choir, because the juniors offered me nothing. I got on the senior choir, but was voted off, which was like hurting," she said. Belle said she kept in that anger, and that not being able to do what she wanted pushed her.

When she got to high school, her white Jewish counsellor did the same thing to her when she asked for advice on what schools to choose to further her career. "He told me to go into the Navy. I immediately took my SAT scores from him, went around to all my teachers and got my own recommendation and applied to all the schools. When I got my acceptance letters, I placed all of them on his wall when he was out for lunch," she said.

Her challenges didn't end there, because in the first two years at Rutgers University, she was kept off the jazz band by a convenor who told here there was no space available.

However, this woman of confidence was strengthened by the rejection and instead, spent the two years building her singing career around the school community.

The rest is history. Regina Belle made the Rutgers University Jazz Band without even having to audition.

"The years of people telling me I couldn't do it began to be my stepping stone. Sometimes we take our gifts for granted, and when somebody tries to stifle and try to stop you, that is the one thing you want to do," she said.