‘Be the Voice for the Voiceless’

BY TAVAKE SIMON HANA’AROA

WHEN I was growing up as a kid, I was a very shy person but when it comes to music, it was easy to express myself through a song, Jamaican Reggae Artist Orville Thomas (a.k.a – Da’Ville) said during his recent visit to Honiara.

Many in the Solomon Islands would know him through his hit songs in the mid-2000s, the likes of ‘Always on my mind, Can’t get over you’ just to name a few; while for others, their first-hand glimpse of him on the 2019 New Year’s Eve Concert still fresh on their minds, and even in their hearts.

Da’Ville as a kid, or even before picking up the idea of becoming an artist went through a tough reality in life. He grew up in downtown Kingston, the capital of Jamaica where it was inhabited by mainly the poor or the low-class populace, they sometimes called it ‘Ghetto’.

Like many artists alike, music is the only way out for him.

“I was born downtown, I was born in the Ghetto and eventually my father bought a house uptown (where richer class people lived) and I moved up.

“And all of that, for me as an individual and all my experiences over the years, I can say that through my music or my songs are the only greatest way for me to express myself.

“And then I start to write my emotions, write my different stories and thoughts and put it into my songs”, the singer and songwriter in his Jamaican accent said.

From different perspectives and experiences in life, every singer and songwriters through their passion and talents present their work for a common purpose that is to tell their audience about their experience in life.

For Da’Ville, ‘Do you know’ and ‘Just another day’ is a song that he wrote from his Ichiban album (2009) was about the tough life he went through as a kid. At one point, he was homeless.

“Do you really know what it is like to have no food to eat,” Thomas sung.

He continued; “I was once homeless so that’s a real story, you feel me?”

Homeless people on the street with blisters on their feet is a line in the ‘Just another day ‘song which he sympathetically sung during his recent press conference in front of local journalists.

“I cried when I was singing this song because it was real to me, you feel me?

“My songs are songs of love you know and I give voice to the voiceless you know.

“But sometimes as a man [too]… it’s difficult for us to express ourselves to a woman,” Da’Ville said.

He said therefore that in this case, he decided to take the stand to speak on behalf of men who are finding it difficult to express their emotions to a woman as he sang the line “Baby I’m sorry, and sorry for breaking your heart’ from the song ‘Yesterday’ also from the Ichiban album, which he jokingly said “this is for those men who really want to express their feelings to their girl but couldn’t do so. So I make it easier for them”.

Da’Ville made a spectacular performance for his Honiara fans on 2019 New Year’s Eve, which has given them a remarkable experience and treasured memories that they would never forget.