Ryan Hopkins | July 1, 2024
NellaLeah was born in Jamaica and currently living in the Cayman Islands. Her entry into music began when she sang for the choir at the age of 5 and later wrote her first song at the age of 10. “I’ve always been deeply rooted in Caribbean music and culture and it shows across all areas of my life, including music” said Nella.
My entire family has some form of musical background including my mother who has been singing in choir and at many events throughout her life. I grew up listening to phenomenally talented artists like Whitney Houston, Etta James, Nina Simone, Michael Jackson, and many more legends.
Having lived in different countries, my singing and writing style developed further into a unique offering with a blend of many sounds from different influences. I can deconstruct music and harmonies, while creating an entire song and rhythm in my mind that ultimately transforms into musical works of art.
I started to hear and create lyrics and melodies in my mind from scratch at a young age that would get stuck on repeat. This was the start of my song writing journey, which usually starts with a feeling; whether from my own experience or someone else. Once that feeling comes, the words, harmonies, melody, rhythm, and beats follows. Often times, I hear the entire composition of the song in my mind while I write the lyrics. Other times, I listen to a beat and just write whatever feelings and words come to me.
With this creative ability to blend and fuse sounds, I can adapt to and write unique songs in many genres like pop, Soca, reggae, dancehall, RnB, jazz, rock, or soul. I have a passion for music that I want to continue to discover and explore. I want to continue to write songs for amazing artists that can further transform my creations.
After many years of doubting myself, I finally got the courage to just jump and try my hand. I released my first song “Into Da Night” on 27 October 2023, and then “Tun It Up” on 16 February 2024 and “Give Us Grace” on 25 May 2024. I hope to continue to write more songs that other artists can sing/perform while still releasing a few of my own. All you need it just one push.
I want to leave my footprint in the world and leave the world a little better than I found it and I hope to do so through the words that I write. I want to help others express themselves, communicate and feel emotions through my songs. I want my music to transport people somewhere else, to be able to step away from life and into the song itself – to feel the emotions of the song.
I will admit it is very hard for musicians to get exposure in 2024. It is even harder in the Caribbean and countries like the Cayman Islands where there aren’t many places to perform or get exposure, another challenge is that I don’t fit into just one genre so that makes finding my audience difficult. However, my motivation is to share my art with the world in the hope that one new person listens to one of my songs and enjoys it, then that is enough.
The best that I can do is to keep being authentic to my music and hope that the world will hear it and enjoy it because the goal is to become a successful songwriter that writes for a variety of genres and be able to help produce melodies for great artists.
My highlights thus have to be the song Give Us Grace, which I released that addresses multiple forms of humankind pain. It is a song that I hope touches the hearts many. If this song can help heal and provide solace to just one person, then the job is done. I am very proud of this song for the message it translates, I was also selected as a finalist for a local Soca song competition that is happening on 29 June 2024.
I’m currently working on a few songs to be released. The first is a love song for my wedding that is dedicated to my husband it’s a surprise though, so don’t tell him – Haha!, and the second is a Jazz song that has a touch of Blues and Soul!
Anyone can contact me through the following:
Website : www.nellaleah.com,
Social media : NellaLeah
Email : nella@nellaleah.com.
My music is available on all streaming platforms under the artist name NellaLeah.