Ice man returns to music

Recently, Donald ?Iceman? Anderson reminded an audience of his talent as a singer during a one-hour set during a presentation dubbed Keys in Life at five Keesing Avenue.

In those 60 minutes, Anderson, who had some measure of success as a singer several years ago, delivered a number of songs from his catalogue and covered R.Kelly?s Bump and Grind as well as Blackstreet?s No Diggity. He also paid tribute to Buju Banton, covering some of the incarcerated artiste?s hits. ?It was very well received. The audience was shocked and amazed,? Anderson told Flair, also revealing that he got ?a big shout-out? from Winston ?Merritone? Blake.

Performances such as this and his growing popularity and visibility through the various commercials he is doing are paving the way for Anderson to make another foray into music. With a new single set to be released in the last quarter of this year, Iceman is all set for a major musical comeback.

A few years ago, frustration over not being able to launch his musical career despite having achieved moderate success, spurred Anderson to return to his roots. ?Acting started it. I never really received any formal musical training. I received formal training as an actor and I started doing theatre first,? he said. ?That was the first genre of entertainment that I went into professionally, and everything else kind of filtered down to the comedy, to the music. So all of them have kind of come together to give me this kind of notoriety that I am enjoying right now.?

That notoriety, as he puts it, has come in the past few years from success achieved in a number of plays, including Stanley and Faye Pularchie and P, a remounting of the Gloria Lannaman 1970s hit play for which he won the Actor Boy Award for Best Actor in a lead role; Glass Slippaz, for which he received a nomination as Best Actor in a Lead Role; and Basil Dawkins? My God Don?t Wear Pajamas.

witty commercials

He also had stints on radio at FAME FM and Hot 102, where he hosted a show until February this year. But it is current role as a LIME ambassador, the face and voice in the witty commercials that air daily on local television, that has helped pushed him over the top. ?That would be what has put it over the edge for me because I was enjoying some visibility from the Ity and Fancy Cat show and from Lady Renae?s ?Mek Wi Laugh?, and from other little pockets of television, that I had been doing over the past four to five years. But the LIME thing is definitely the one that pushed everything over the edge for me and pulled everything together for people to see that this is Iceman, and this is the kind of talent that he offers,? he said.

He added: ? My life has changed. Iceman is now a household name what with the advent of the LIME ambassador thing. That, along with the plays that I have been doing, radio broadcasting, comedy, acting and the music, everybody knows who Iceman is and knows what he is about.?

The visibility and popularity have opened doors to new opportunities for the multi-talented entertainer, who also praised manager Donovan Watkiss of Rox-Starz Entertainment for helping him achieve his goals. ?We are always thinking outside of the box,? he said of his relationship with Watkiss. ?We at Rox-Starz are always thinking about what else can we do and do differently as the times change because entertainment is an ever-evolving thing. We have some projects in the making for television and for radio, especially where the music is concerned. This is kind of like Iceman?s reintroduction as a musical act, so we are recording some songs again for release. People call me the Jamaican Jamie Foxx, and I am okay with that because that means I am doing something right,? Anderson concluded.