Jeneile Osborne aka Queen Omega is a world reggae singer from TT
Queen Omega hails from San Fernando in Trinidad.
Encouraged by her mother (to whom she pays
moving tribute on "Mama"), she began entering local
talent shows from the age of nine, writing her own
calypsos and even rapping on national television.
Later on she sang backing vocals for local producer
Kenny Philips, accompanying numerous top Soca
acts both in the studio and on stage. Raised in a
musical family, she grew up listening to soul artists
like Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker and Whitney
Houston, as well as jazz and the traditional music of
Trinidad. Such foundations were to serve her well
later on; her favourites however, were reggae &
dancehall.
Inspired by the teachings of Emperor Haile Selassie
I, her song writing skills soon blossomed, with roots
and reality themes coming to the fore as her love of
Rastafari deepened. It was on a trip to Jamaica with
the Solomon Band where she performed at the
Caribbean Music Expo in late 2000 that she met
producer Mickey D, who brought her to London the
following year for sessions that resulted in her debut
set, "Queen Omega". This was followed by several hit
singles and a second album titled "Pure Love".
Early 2004 Jet Star released "Away From
Babylon", Queen Omega’s third and most
accomplished album then, finding her still
residing within Mickey D's Green House Family.
With these three albums and many well received
live performances, Queen Omega blazied a trail
for female roots reggae artists.
And she continued to do so with the brand new
collection of tunes. Under the wings of the very
talented French production Bost & Bim and the
label; Special Delivery Music, she showed that
she has improved her vocal delivery further. She
mixes her standard singing with deejaying, and
is equally efficient at doing both. Besides that
she once again fully showcases her devastating
ability to write to the point messages.
Queen Omega is well on her way to creating a
sort of consistency the roots side of reggae has
never had from a female artist. Outstanding
tracks are "Selassie I Know", "Love Each Other",
"Me Beg Yu", "Keep The Faith", "No Retire", the
combination song with Buju Banton titled
"Perfect Combination", and the title track
"Destiny". Her distinctive voice, the conscious
lyrics and some real good riddims - fresh
originals as well as do-overs - makes the CD
truly worthwhile adding to your collection.
In 2008 Queenie as she is fondly called by many,
performed at many reggae festivals in North
America , headlining the Northwest World Music
festival in Eugene, Oregon. And in 2009 she
toured Brazil and France (Garance Reggae
Festival with Don Carlos & Barrington Levy).
The superbly talented Empress in 2010 recorded
with Jah Sun on his Gravity EP and toured with
Marcia Griffiths. 2011 saw her performing on
tour in Portugal, Sweden, France and the French
West Indies. With the release of a new LP
produced by High Fly Music, 2012 was a major
year for Queen Omega as she was on tour in
France, Germany, La Réunion. She also received
the much deserved Merlin Lynn Taitt Award for
Music in 2012.
Since then Queen Omega continues
to tour the Caribbean, Europe (France, Germany,
Switzerland.. ) and has performed on many of the
largest Reggae festival stages such as; Reggae
Rising (USA), SNWMF (USA), JaSound (France),
African Music Festival (Germany) and Sao Paulo
(Brazil).
Queen Omega : one of the most sweet and powerful voice of the Caribbean will be back in Europe for an exclusive tour with her band.
A New EP and a New Album are coming out soon !
