What is your name?

Shondell Amada

What is your sobriquet?

Dash

Is there a story behind your selected sobriquet?

Basically got my sobriquet by just being around my friends in my natural element – always giving jokes and having fun. A friend of mine actually told me ‘watch it dey, you short like a 60-metre dash’ and that was it.

The first person to start calling me Dash was my little niece.

What is your profession?

I am a Police Officer attached to the Royal Grenada Police Force Band. I am a vocalist and a Junior Drummer in the Band.

How long have you been singing Soca?

I’ve been singing Soca for about nine years, but about four years on an international level.

Who/what inspires you?

Knowing that I have the listening public’s attention and knowing that I can spark a change by just being positive and being able to bring forth messages in my music. That really inspires me to also be a better person and make better decisions, because music is a universal language – music involves everything you do.

What are some challenges you face as a young artiste?

There are a lot of challenges, but the main challenges are exposure and finances, especially as an artiste that’s now looking to put myself out there to get a following. This can be very difficult, but if you’re very persistent and you know what you’re about you should trust the process. So, being out there and for the public to hear you is one of the challenges.

The most challenging one is getting the funding to finance the music as a young artiste, to get quality music produced, especially since you want your music to be at a certain standard.

Who are you? i.e. (passion, hobbies, family, favourite meal)

Dash is a cool, straight up guy. He is a stick to the plan, stick to the script, say it as it is and don’t beat up or beat around kind of guy.

I have a lot of hobbies including playing sports – basketball, cricket and football. I also love playing the drums, playing music, creating music and fishing.

I don’t really have a favourite meal, but, if you have to give me something I can eat every day, it has to be a callalloo soup.

What’s the advice would you give to aspiring artistes?

The message I would give to any artiste is ‘you need to know why you started, remember why you started – there is a reason why you started. Challenges are there, this is not a straight flight or a clear path, there is traffic on this path. Therefore, having a great work ethic and a great personality, humility and patience to understand that everything will not happen one time.

Trust the process, have a team that trusts in you and also one that you trust in, but don’t let go everything in their hands, you have to be ball most of the times and know what it is that you want, and how you want to get it. But, most of all you need to be persistent and go hard!

What can we look forward to from you in the future?

We all know that 2018 will be the year I will be defending my Groovy Monarch once again on August 10 in position #12. This one is for the history books – no one has ever won the crown three consecutive times, so, I’m going out there filled with confidence to defend and to have fun. But, defending this one, I’ll be making a statement – this one has to be the one. There’ll be no stones left unturned. I’m going all out.

As long as I live and God gives me the strength, the vision, the gift of sight, the gift of speaking, the gift of hearing, then I’ll continue to produce music – great music – the fans will turn it into hits.