Contributed photo
CeCile.Popular female singer CeCile (Cecile Charlton) wants to become a dot.com millionaire via her music.
Sounds ambitious? Well, you wouldn't think it is too far-fetched if you knew her better.
Matching raw talent with genuine determination, she has already won enough awards for her performances in 2000 to make her one of the leading Jamaican female artistes for the year.
CeCile has already won a number of newspaper and radio awards, as well as top female act awards for 2000 from the Reggaesoca Awards in Florida, and the Jamaica Federation of Musicians.
But, she is not content to relax and is currently devoted to two main projects - her debut album and the vision of her successful dot.com company.
She became interested in e-commerce five years ago, while working at Celestial Sounds studios in Kingston.
"I was always on the Internet and I spent a lot of time reading about it," she said.
The performer is still learning about business online but, in the meantime, she has invested her earnings from her music career in her own Web site.
"Any money I earn I put back into my promotion and since I don't have a manager, I have to do everything myself," she said.told Showbiz.
CeCile's Web site is www.cecileflava.com, which has been up and running for a couple of months, with great response.
"People from all over the world have been showing interest," she said.
The site offers a variety of interesting features, including her profile, booking dates, lyrics and a dictionary for people who don't understand Jamaican patois.
In addition to this site, she also has her music available for downloading via www.mp3.com/cecile. One of the features of her sites is the exclusive songs not available via any other medium.
"You know here we put out a lot of music on vinyl, but there are so many people all over the world who don't buy vinyl and I need to have my music exposed to them. There are a lot of people who don't know me and I need to let them know me," she said.
She points out that there is money to be earned from the MP3 downloading.
Bounty Killer, Spragga Benz and Mr. Vegas are among the growing number of dancehall acts who have created their own Web sites.
CeCile has also been busy scouting for investors. Among those who have so far become involved with her future plans is head of the Kings of Kings label, Colin Levy and John McKinley of X-Claim studio in Princeville Plaza.
She has been busy co-producing her debut album with 'Skatta' Burrell. The performer has also been working with veteran producer Mikey Bennett, in order to get a wider flavour: "I want to sell music. I don't want to do music that doesn't go anywhere. Eventually I hope to have a dot.com company that can make me into a millionaire," she said.
