On August 6, Novel-T plans to celebrate Jamaica\u2019s 60th anniversary as an independent nation. A long-time resident of South Florida, the singer has great memories of that period.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I remember is how everybody became happy and proud, and the spirit of celebration that was all around. I remember wanting to go to the street dances but not being allowed to because my father always thought something bad would happen to us in a crowd on the road,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI especially remember all of us in the house gathered around Daddy’s transistor radio with the wooden cabinet (because we had no TV as yet) while all the festival songs would play, and we would discuss which one we think would win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Novel-T got a pre-independence gift when her song, \u2018So I Can Love You\u2019<\/em><\/strong>, topped the South Florida Reggae Chart for two weeks. It is a cover of The Emotions\u2019 soul classic, done in 1969 for Stax Records.<\/p>\n But even as she revels in another number one song on the South Florida beat, Novel-T reminisces on independence time in Jamaica which helped nurture her career.<\/p>\n The Festival Song Competition, which takes place one week before the August 6 events, was another must-watch for her.<\/p>\n \u201cFor some reason when I think of Festival songs, Eric Donaldson’s songs like \u2018Cherry Oh Baby\u2019 and \u2018Land of my Birth\u2019 are the first that come to mind. I don’t even know whether they are my favorites, as I’m sure I’ve loved several songs over the years … but anytime I think of Festival his voice is the one I keep hearing in my head,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u2018So I Can Love You\u2019 <\/em><\/strong>is Novel-T\u2019s latest chart-topper. Her previous number ones include \u2018Keep it Moving\u2019<\/em><\/strong> and \u2018Two Makes One\u2019<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On August 6, Novel-T plans to celebrate Jamaica\u2019s 60th anniversary as an independent nation. A long-time resident of South Florida, the singer has great memories of that period. \u201cWhat I remember is how everybody became happy and proud, and the spirit of celebration that was all around. I remember wanting to go to the street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4104"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4106,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4104\/revisions\/4106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sandbox.reggaenorthca.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}