To the casual dancehall or reggae aficionado, the name Shenseea embodies everything that’s wrong with music in Jamaica today. On one hand, the 20-year- old singer/deejay/songwriter, born Chinsea Lee, is proof that a virtually unknown talent can be nurtured and fuel a social media push that can create an overnight fan base, tour globally and even garner corporate recognition from the likes of FLOW and Pepsi Jamaica without compromising who you truly are.
On the other hand, her fast-paced success story has created a divide in the dancehall community amongst her female counterparts while falling victim to salacious rumours many hope would derail her unmatched rise to stardom. But it’s not Shenseea’s fault; she’s simply reinventing what it means to be a Dancehall star -combining music, fashion
and video into a truly exciting avant-garde vision. She has found herself walking a tightrope where she has to maintain her focus on her musical journey without allowing the burden of fame to invade her creative space and while attempting to inspire the next wave of budding artistes, like herself, to the forefront of dancehall supremacy.
In the midst of it all, Shenseea exudes a preternatural sense of cool, which, when paired with her multifaceted vocal range and delivery, she transforms into an unpredictable persona. Her image, personality and song selections don’t exactly correlate, but it works for her. She simply can’t be studied but her fans know that she always delivers the best version of herself each time.
Yet before the glitz and glamour, and aligning herself with marketing and promotions tycoon Romeich Major, Shenseea was just another tomboy with the idea of stardom glistening in her eyes.
“I was born in the Mandeville Hospital in Manchester and grew up in Harmony Hall in St. Mary, before moving to Kingston when I was around the age of three or four,” she said while positioning herself to comfort in the studio’s couch. “I stayed with my aunt in Kingston until I passed for Mona High School. Then I moved to Hagley Park then Stony Hill… I didn’t really have a steady home as you can already tell; I was always moving,” she confessed, dazing into the ceiling as if mentally recollecting childhood memories. With her mother taking multiple live-in jobs and her father absent from family portraits all together, the extended family played a crucial role in her development.
“My mother always took live-in jobs so she would be away for two weeks at a time and visit on the weekends then gone again, so I always had to stay with relates -uncles and aunts – until I finished high school and settled in Stony Hill,” she recalls. “My aunt had me the longest though and certainly ensured that she taught me a lot. I know it’s really hard for a parent to grow a child that isn’t theirs and to treat them like their own, but she treated us all equally. My development was important to her. I remember being in primary school and my aunt would always help me with my
vocabulary, giving me random words to study.”
Mastering the Art of Words
A leader by birth, Shenseea found herself motivating her peers to not simply settle for what’s being taught in school but to explore the world around them, while fuelling her love for the literary arts. “I really loved English Language…Social Studies…History… any reading or writing subject, that’s me. You can keep Maths and Accounts (laughs), all now mi nuh pass Maths and mi nah look deh,” she chuckled breaking off into patois before revealing a childhood memory she’d never forget. “I used to love to tell a lot of lies. I would get crazy beatings for lying, but my aunt really curbed my behaviour (laughs). I remember once lying about eating a strawberry from the fridge and telling my aunt that it was my cousin (her daughter) who did it and of course she defended herself, and with no hesitation went for the strap and started lashing us and I was there just watching my cousin crying rivers and I just had to confess (laughs). I’ll never forget that day.”
After graduating from Mona High, she ventured to Excelsior Community College to major in Entertainment Management. “I actually started doing promotions on the side while at college. Unfortunately, financial hardships struck and I had to get a full-time job, then of course I got pregnant. So I had to stop the full-time job, but I had my handsome baby boy Raj and got back into promotions shortly after,” she explained. “Raj is now a year old and family means everything to me. I remember being younger and telling myself that I want to be a great role model for my children and I want to be very loving because you know a lot of teenagers have children and they aren’t giving them the love and attention they need, but instead focus on partying and acting as if, ‘yes I’m still young so I have to experience whatever.’ So it’s really is important for me to keep him in mind with everything that I’m doing and be very aware of my actions as I don’t want anyone to say/think I’m a disgrace to my son.”
As the circle of life would have it, the father of her child isn’t as present as he should but that doesn’t seem to phase Shenseea at all. Quite frankly, she thinks she’s better off. “His presence is pretty much every now and then and I really don’t mind. I didn’t grow with my father and I’m quite fine as you can see (chuckle). I’m not sad or anything and it didn’t bother me one bit so hopefully my son isnt one of those children who as he grows older he yearns for his father. I’m trying to grow him as strong as I was grown,” she said assuredly. “To be honest, since Raj’s birth, I haven’t really seen him. If he needs to see his son he will be with one of my relatives because most of the times I’m not even there so he gets in contact with my mother or my aunt.”
The First Lady of Romeich Entertainment
Night in. Night out. The promotion days flew by her in a blur and brewing inside was a talent she had always toyed around with. Singing. Romeich would ultimately get wind of her hidden talent and present her with an opportunity like no other. “It was February of 2016 that I wrote my first song,” she unveiled, “and being the type of person Romeich is, if he believes in something he’ll invest without hesitation.” Romeich’s investment paid off in what would appear to be an unpredictable move and catapulted Shenseea’s name to the top of every music enthusiasts’ radar and the average listener falling in love with her.
Women admired her and men desired her. Perfect timing or strategically calculated?
“It’s the perfect timing – where I am right now. I think if I enter the music industry then, I wouldn’t be where I am right now. But it is all happening so fast to be honest,” she explained, signalling to Romeich Entertainment signee, Bishop Escobar, to enter the studio quietly. “I’ve made connections with so many top producers in just a few months. I have to be doing songs upon songs upon songs and remember I just started to write last year so it’s not like there’s a backlog of songs waiting to see the light – that’s somewhat pressuring at times, just to consistently create in a short timeframe.” From her breakout single Jiggle Jiggle, everyone was immediately taken aback by the contrast of her image, her persona and her sound.
To Read More: Purchase your copy of Volume 9 #3– July-August 2017