Chris Martin talks fears, two decades of music aboard Love and Harmony Cruise
Published:Saturday | April 20, 2024 | 12:07 AMShanel Lemmie/Staff Reporter
Christopher Martin entered the music industry nearly 20 years ago as a bright-eyed teenager in the country’s fastest-growing singing competition. Since then, the young star has transformed into a big deal. Celebrating his upcoming platinum anniversary, Martin has decided that this is the year of positivity and conquering fears.
Martin was one among a star-studded list of artistes headlining the 2024 Love and Harmony Cruise. Sailing the Caribbean Sea for six days, just setting foot on the vessel was the first stop in conquering the singer’s fear of large bodies of water.
“It’s been an experience, but it’s been good. Mi a gwaan fight the waves. Mi a try mi best nuffi really look pon the water still,” he said tentatively peering into the deep blue.
“I am not a fan of large bodies of water like this. I’ve been approached to do cruises before and me just wouldn’t do it. But my band said they wanted to do it and they wanted to do the entire cruise so I said alright then, I’ll just face my fears and take it on.”
Definitely grateful for the experience, Martin told The Gleaner that his time on the Norwegian Pearl only amplified his gratitude for his fans because of their overwhelming outpour of love.
“Everywhere I walk it’s just positive vibes, people telling me how much they love me, where they saw me the first time, people telling me they voted for me.”
He went on, “Every time I come out of my room or I try go to the restaurant or I try to go link up with my friend dem, random people just come up to me and just a shower we with love. That’s been my favourite part of it.”
Though Martin maintains that he is only 21 years old, next year will mark two decades in the music industry for him.
“Twenty years in the business as a 21-year-old eh? Mi start from mi a one,” he joked before continuing.
“It’s a blessing. It’s a milestone. It sounds surreal, it really sounds unreal when I really say it cause I feel so young, I feel so vibrant. To be in this for 20 years and still be relevant and the people still love me as much as they do. I have fans who have been there with me from 2005. They watched me on Rising Stars, I grew up in front of them. They feel like they have an added interest in my career, they invested in my career because nuff a dem vote fi me. And then you have the younger ones who came along the way, yuh zimme. So me have a nice core fan base and then we stack more people on top of it because we stay true to we self. Next year we ago keep a big show man, me and me people dem.”
Though they are still in the early staging of planning, Martin said the show will have the dual responsibility of celebrating both his birthday and his platinum anniversary.
Until then, the Guaranteed singer is working on conquering another fear, reptiles and amphibians.
“I goin’ [to] try hold a bull frog. Mi fraid a frog bad so mi ago try hold one inah mi hand. Mi cyah hold nuh bull frog, no lizard, no snake, none a dem something deh. Mi not even wah dem go close to me. So me can try do one a dem deh, if me a try do a bucket list and a try tick off some fears.” Not filling all his time with his fear factor-like pursuits, Martin said his next single will tap into and hopefully encourage his audience to embrace self-love.
“I have a few singles coming out and hopefully my body of work will come out as well, my fourth album. The next single coming out will be a song called Boasy. It’s on the lines of a mixture of Chill Spot and Big Deal.”
Reciting some of his new lyrics he said, “ From you good at anything at all you fi boasy. And you know you work hard you deserve a trophy. Badmind evil and dem nosy, so when you win you nuffi hide it, you fi post it.” He added, “Be proud of yourself man; and being boasy doesn’t mean your hype. You’re just in touch with who you are and you love yourself. You love what you’re doing and you’re proud of yourself.”
Speaking directly to his fans he said, “Love yourself, don’t wait pon nobody fi love you either. Self love a di most important love. In its simplest form, if you’re putting clothes fi go outside and a wait fi somebody tell you say you look good, that means say your day ago mash up if nobody tells you. But from you put it on and you tell yourself seh ‘yow me cha cha enuh’ you built already. Step out with that confidence and dont’ wait on any man or woman to validate you. Love yourself man, live in that love and bask in it.”