By Kimberly Wallace, HER Magazine
Tobago born phenomenon Stephanie Joseph has worked with some of the entertainment industry’s most renowned artists and graced the stage at music events like the Tobago Jazz Festival where she delivered spellbinding performances. Her smooth vocals and command of genres including gospel, jazz and R& B solidifies her status as one of Tobago’s best vocalists.
The 34-year-old singer who blew away the audience with her performance at the Tobago Festivals Commission Discover Series event grew up in rural Tobago – the serene and peaceful village of Mount St George to be exact.
Coming from a musically gifted family, Joseph gravitated towards music like a moth to a flame. “My mom, dad, sisters, aunts and uncles all sing. I’ve been singing for as long as I know myself,’ she tells Her.
Joseph began honing her singing skills at church as early as five years old. There she and her older sisters sang gospel and blended their harmonies and later performed at events under their stage name “The Joseph Sisters’. But her teen years ushered in a period of awakening for Joseph, it was then that she discovered Jamaican reggae artists Sizzla and Richie Spice.
“I think I inherited some of my father’s tastes. Before he came into the church, he was a big Bob Marley and reggae fan,’ says Joseph. She became a solo artist and released her gospel reggae album Rooted and Grounded. She also began performing at events, hotels and restaurants.
However, her parents didn’t take too kindly to her shift from gospel to reggae, while her father’s musical preferences morphed over the years before finally settling on gospel, Joseph’s were on a journey of exploration.
In Tobago she felt that she had to hide to be herself, so she moved to Trinidad. The move resulted in several opportunities; she did background vocals on Sizzla’s album and performed as a background vocalist for Prophet Benjamin. “Performing with someone like Prophet Benjamin whom I had looked up to was a humbling and exciting experience. It was then that I realised that I was growing as an artist,’ she says. Joseph lived in Trinidad for three years where she also began her rastafarian journey.
“Trinidad is where I began my first transition,” she says. “I started doing reggae from a broader perspective because there was no one to stop me or hold me back. I was introduced to a new way of thinking through the metaphysical world, which led to a total shift in thought, in living, and in the way I see things.’
Performing at the calypso tents also reintroduced Joseph to certain aspects of her culture that she had taken for granted growing up. She began doing research on slavery and what her ancestors endured as a people.
“It opened my eyes to who we are, where we need to be and how we can stand together,” she says. “Even though we’re not in shackles physically, some of us are still shackled but in a figurative way and until we learn to break those chains, the cycle will just be repeated.’
Emancipation Day is one of the most powerful, empowering and impactful opportunities to educate youths about the reason for freedom, she adds.
“It is a time of celebration, a time for us to embrace ourselves and who we are, it’s a time to live the freedom that we speak about,’ she says.
While her rastafari journey raised her level of consciousness, Joseph is currently not an adherent of rastafarianism or any other religious beliefs; instead she preaches a gospel of love through her music whether it’s in the form of reggae, R& B, gospel, jazz or retro. Her music revolves around three pillars, love, unity and truth, her lyrics speak to men, women and children.
Expect much more from this gifted, soulful songstress. Joseph is working on new music, she will soon release new singles ahead of her second album but she’s also doing her homework with hopes of taking her music to international audiences.
