Last night we introduced you to the new entertainment show called the Next Level. It features developing artists as they transform themselves from amateurs to professional entertainers. So it’s part entertainment, part reality show and the reality is that while many of them could sing before they got vocal training, they could not sing professionally. Jacqueline Godwin found out about their development into singers who can hold a tune.
Jacqueline Godwin Reporting,
Singing is more than just standing on a stage, holding a microphone and entertaining…an excellent performer is one who can fully occupy and use the platform to his or her advantage and move the audience – even to tears by their ability to demonstrate and impart true emotions. That’s the high level of performance the Next Level Project will bring to Belizeans, a skill that one would agree has been missing from many of our stage performances.
Throughout the summer the show’s entertainers have been involved in intensive vocal training by one of the best from the region, Barbadian Kellie Cadogan.
Kellie Cadogan, Vocal Trainer
“To be a performer in its true sense and that because of lights and glamour and glitter and you feel that you have a good sound. Have a good sound and having a good sound is being able to connect not only melodically.”
Entertainer Leslie “Bastic” Jenkins understands what it is like to get his emotional skill to work for him but admits it is not easy because sometimes the performer has to re-live painful memories.
Leslie “Bastic” Jenkins, Entertainer - the Next Level Project
“With that song my uncle and my best friend died of cancer. My uncle
died in my hands so just going back into that time and thinking about that was so hard for me.”
Kellie Cadogan,
“And if you know you are going to cry each and every time in that song, go to that emotional place during your rehearsal process so that when you come to perform that song, you know that if you break, the emotion hits you so hard, you know what that place feels like emotionally and vocally.”
Clive Myers, Entertainer - the Next Level Project
“I tend to see myself at times as a perfect individual and when I do things that I regret, I bash myself a lot and I really don’t look up
to myself. But by singing a song that is telling probably myself that I am my own hero.”
Deborah Pitts, Entertainer - the Next Level Project
“Whenever I sing a song it is like my little comfort song. I feel comfort in singing songs because I might not sing it in front of people but I sing it to myself and I feel ahh…”
A total of ten entertainers will be performing in the upcoming next level project. Jacqueline Godwin for 7News.
Next Level premiers on Friday night at 9:00 on Channel 7. It will be live from the Bliss Center and will also feature a live audience.
