Tennicia De Freitas

Seventeen-year-old Tennicia De Freitas sung her way into the hearts of all who attended the recent Guyana Music Awards. And for most of them, when she burst onto the stage in a stunning blue dress as part of a four-member ensemble, it was the first time they were seeing and hearing her.

Despite having the powerful voices of some of the more known names in the music business singing with her, the relatively unknown songbird Tennicia stole the moment.
In a recent interview with The Scene, Tennicia described the opportunity to sing at the Accolades as “amazing”.

“Anybody would be as excited as I was,” she said with a broad smile. She said that because it was the biggest stage she “gave it my all. Even though I was not nominated for an award I got to perform and I made a presentation.”

How would she have been nominated for an award? Well this beauty, who has been entering beauty pageants on the side, has already released three songs. Two soca tunes and one R&B song, “Can’t Get Over You”, which is now being played on the airwaves. “Can’t Get Over You” was written by B52, the artiste formerly known as Lil Man and recorded at Kross Kolor Studios.

And that’s not all, she won the secondary schools’ calypso competition for three consecutive years. Someone must have breathed a sigh of relief now that she is no longer a student of the Christ Church Secondary School. Those who have plans to enter the national junior calypso competition next year, beware. Tennicia not only has every intention of entering but she wants nothing more than to walk away with the crown.

When The Scene caught up with her recently she related that since leaving school in July she has been looking for a job but she was not sure what exactly she wanted to do even though she stressed that she had to find a job because of her family’s financial constraints owing to her brother’s illness. Because of her brother, Tennicia has temporarily shelved plans of becoming a paediatrician because instead of furthering her studies she now has to find a job.

But even as she waits for a job Tennicia is not sitting around twiddling her thumbs as she has been frequently featuring in Digicel advertisements. You must have seen her alongside the well known Vanilla telling us all about what the company is offering its customers for the Christmas season. And while the Digicel adds are the first on screen ones for her she told The Scene that she has been doing voice-overs for advertisements over the past few years and even has a few jingles under her belt.

She told The Scene that in another five years she wants to become an accomplished musician, not only to belt out soul-touching notes, but she also want to know every aspect of the music world.

Since a tot
Tennicia said she has been singing since she knew herself as a matter fact since she could have spoken. No surprise there as she related that her mother has a voice to be envied and she also has uncles and aunts who sing. But her first real public singing was in 2003 when she entered her church’s teen talent competition and won. She entered another competition — she cannot even remember its name – for which she had to record at Kross Kolor.

It was at that point things changed for Tennicia as Burchmore Simon heard her voice and he immediately saw the star in her. He spoke with her mother she became part of the Kross Kolor family. It was Simon who wrote her songs for the schools’ calypso competitions. And apart from helping her to record songs Simon gave De Freitas the opportunity to appear in his second soca ‘Koction’ which saw her singing with some of the bigger names in the soca business.  She said being the youngest artiste at Kross Kolor is “great” and she had many words of thanks for Simon whom she said has been very helpful to her over the years and treats her as his own child. “He is the best manger anyone would want,” she said as she heaped praise on the music producer whom she said is never afraid to tell you where you are going wrong but just as quickly he gives you your props. She described Kross Kolor and its artistes as a family and suggested that this was what makes the company a cut above the rest.

But it is not just singing De Freitas is into as she told The Scene that she also likes modelling and dancing. She was part of last year’s Miss Guyana Talented Teen pageant and while she did not win she was adjudged the first runner-up which saw her representing Guyana in St Kitts at a talented teen pageant. She neither won nor placed in that pageant but copped the best ambassadorial prize her costume and speech. The teenager is now contemplating entering the Miss Jamzone pageant come next year.

And she was a member of the National School of Dance, but left to write CXC and later joined the Classique Dance Company which saw her performing at the recently concluded Zig Zag show. She has also left that company for “personal reasons”, but she plans to continue dancing. She is taking steel pan lessons and come next year she wants to add piano lessons to the list. Tennicia is going to be busy over the next few years and she says we will hear more of her as she plans to release some new R&B singles next year. (samantha_alleyne2000@yahoo.com)