Twelve-year-old Jalessa Lazarus’ dream is to become an international recording artiste and entertainer, and she is well on her way to that goal with the recent release of her second single Focus.
Written by songwriter Jason "Shaft" Bishop, Focus is an Afrobeats / soca song that encourages youths, especially girls, to keep their attention on their education.
“There is a time for books and a time for boys. There are a lot of young ladies and boys out there that are going and doing wrong things and getting themselves in trouble.
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“I’ve seen girls in school talking about boys and inappropriate stuff, or hearing young boys in the road cussing and thing. There are young children on social media showing their body parts or the middle finger in their pictures. They are only focussing on the worldy things.”
Jalessa said she started singing around age three and her favourite music was gospel and the songs from the Disney movie Frozen. Now, she also loves R&B, soca and Afrobeats and gets vocal training from Tiffany Paul at the Curtis Jordan Coaching Academy.
The Arima-born artiste, who has two younger siblings, was first introduced to the public at the age of five through her mother’s social media platforms.
Phylesha Lazarus said, “I would put her on my Facebook Live and she would sing. I always believed in my daughter. Jalessa is extremely talented, and she’s full of life, full of joy and energy. She is also incredibly passionate.”
At the age of six, Jalessa won an online competition hosted by soca star Nailah Blackman. Her prize was to perform on stage with Blackman at Nai Army at the Queen’s Park Savannah in July 2018.
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In September 2022, Jalessa placed first in the Lyndon Ross Talent Show, and soon after, a video of Jalessa performing at a karaoke competition singing Adele’s Easy on Me became a viral TikTok video with over 900,000 views.
This year, she released her first recording, Kiddies Carnival, which was written by Bishop and actor and comedian Nikki Crosby, and also featured Crosby on the track. The St Charles High School, Tunapuna student entered the Ministry of Education’s 2023 Junior Soca Competition with Kiddies Carnival and placed second.
She said the competition was exciting. She was shocked when she placed second because it was her first time but she said everyone was proud of her and she was proud of herself.
In addition to being an entertainer, Jalessa wants to be a music teacher, although she also enjoys English literature and language, art and geography. Also, she recently gave a motivational talk at a vacation camp where she said got to know the other children, gave a speech, told them about her experiences and played a game.
“I want to teach all the young kids out there, give them motivation, inspire them and be a role model for them.”
Phylesha added that her daughter is proof that anyon
