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Salute to The Queens Behind The Scenes

Salute to The Queens Behind The Scenes Salute to The Queens Behind The Scenes

History is littered with stories of greatness. Narratives of people who have conquered armies of the world, performed in front of millions to rapturous applause and lead nations through times of great tumult.

And yet, when we examine more carefully, ‘great people’ are almost never great in and of themselves. Their ascent to lofty heights is never really their own doing. Rather, it is the critical people standing in the shadows who produce the end-product we see and love.

Genghis Khan would never have been the same without Yelu Chucai. What would Napoleon Bonaparte have been without Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord? Could Alexander the Great have been…well…great, without his mother; Olympias as his driving force?

The answer is no.

It’s for this reason that – if we’re to learn anything about success – the Buzzz must focus on the greatness behind the greatness we see every day.

When our favourite television and radio programmes have come to an end, their names are foremost amongst what you see or hear reeled off in quick succession. But be not fooled; their significance can never be understated. They are critical in the media machinery. They are up long before the proverbial rooster has changed out of his pajamas, and are often working long after many of us have retired for bed. Without them, the smooth sound or rich pictures we have come to expect on a regular basis would be mere fantasy.

BUZZZ Magazine caught up with three Jamaican producers who are at the top of the industry in their home-land. They are in demand and in the thick of things.

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Tazhna Williams

Among them is Tazhna Williams, Executive Producer of popular local radio show, Miss Kitty Live.
She is a young and vivacious media practitioner, with a passion for her work. But don’t let the pretty face and sultry voice fool you. She is aggressive when it comes to executing projects and protecting the interests of the talents under her management. It is this tenacious yet extremely caring nature that makes her a producer extraordinaire.

She will be the first to tell you it is far from as glamorous as it looks and sounds. Instead, she emphasizes that being a producer is about hard work, long hours, last minute changes, unforeseen hiccups, temperamental clients and unpredictable guests thrown into the mix.
Producing a Producer

People who like to remain behind the scenes are often misread as being shy or withdrawn. While this is sometimes the case, the truth is that producers have to be supremely comfortable in their own skins and with their own skill-sets. They wield considerable power and must be of a certain temperament to happily watch the show from the wings. But how did Tazhna Williams get here? Key to the creation of the Fairy Princess of radio production is a strong disciplinarian mother whose own no nonsense upbringing became instrumental in honing young Tazhna’s skill set, and steering her in the right direction.

In explaining her mother’s influence she notes that her mother “…was a stickler for details and discipline. She was an advocate for all things clean! And so you must walk and talk a certain way and regardless of how old you are, she believed that you should be able to engage people at any level.”