Charly B

Charly B

Charly B @ Rototom Sunsplash Festival
Background information
Birth name Charles Blanvillain
Also known as Charly B
Born Rome, Italy
Genres Reggae
Labels TMMG (& VPal distribution)
Associated acts TMMG band

Charly B, born Charles Blanvillain in 1981, is a French reggae singer-songwriter who performs, and whose music is distributed, internationally.

Biography

Debut

Born in Rome to a family of music lovers, he is of French, German and Armenian descent. At the age of 4, his family moved back to France, where he spent most of his childhood. He was fascinated by music, and discovered reggae at the age of 15, when he spent a year at IONA High School in Jamaica, living with a Jamaican family, in a program sponsored by the American Field Service. Later on, he studied sound engineering at the School of Recording Arts, Canada and at the Sound and Audio Engineering School in Geneva.

He composed his first reggae song at the age of 15. His musical studies in Canada, long visit to Jamaica, and time spent living in France near the Swiss border, together with his international tours, form the cultural underpinnings of his artistic vision. He has collaborated with legends of dancehall reggae such as Capleton, Kiprich, De Marco and Anthony B.

Career

In 2002, at the age of 21, he was voted best DJ in Geneva.[1][2] In 2003, he wrote a song for the movie "Destination Jamaica" by George Tait (Jungle George)[3] In December 2003, his song "My Queen" was included in a DVD distributed with the Austrian surfers' magazine Methodmag[4][5] (60,000 copies). In 2005 he was voted the best DJ in Switzerland, in a contest organized by Giddeon Productions.[6][7] Unfortunately, he was not able to take advantage of the prize, a concert on the main stage of Rototom Sunsplash Festival 2005, as he had committed to visit Jamaica that summer. He therefore gave the prize to Elijah, the runner-up in the competition. In 2007, Eliane Dambre of the Ateliers du Funambule, decided to nominate him for the Eurovision competition as Switzerland's candidate,[8] (in competition with DJ Bobo), but the attempt was made too late to qualify him for the contest. More recently, in 2009, he won an award for "Best Reggae Song"[9] in the Reggae Europe competition. He has hundreds of songs composed by him (music and lyrics), in French and English and in Jamaican slang, registered with the French-based Society of Lyricists, Composers and Music Editors (SACEM).[10] In February 2013, he wins a podium at the Victories of Reggae 2013 in the category "Revelation of the Year". The Jamaican newspapers "Jamaican Observer" write a great article on his career in February 2013, February being the "Reggae Month"[11] In June 2013, he wins the Price of the Public and the best author-composer price at the Zicmeup Competition in Paris organized by Zicmeup/the Voice. In 2015, he joins the TMMG Production group in Kingston and gets a VPal distribution for his single Prophecies Untold.

Studios in Jamaica

2009-2015: In summer 2009, after winning a competition with Reggae Europe with his song "My Sound", Reggae Europe offered the artist to do some recordings and videos at Geejam Studios in Jamaica. He there had the opportunity to meet with Jon Baker and his team, and several of the artists who recorded there (Grace Jones, Drake, Diplo, Katy Perry, Alicia Keys, John Legend, No Doubt, Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, Florence and the Machine, Alborosie etc. etc. He recorded there the "Forever" album.[12] In 2015, he starts recording a new reggae album with TMMG, which will see the light in 2016.

Encounters, tours and international invitations

Between 2009 and 2015, he meets and/or works with many artists, the Jolly Boys, Alborosie, the Shengen Clan, Agent Sasco (Assassin), Chronixx, 2Chainz, Mystic Davis (Aidonia) and many others. He is invited to perform and tour in Spain, Germany, Canada, the United States and Vietnam (Cama Festival and more). During that period, he also makes several videos, among which Ooh No (2009), The Way you wine (2009), Forever (2010), Everything OK (2012), Gypsy (2013), One Phone Call Away (2014), and Prophecies Untold (2015).

Discography

Albums

Singles

Video clips

TV Program

Shows

Notes and references

  1. "Mx3 – Charly.B & THE OFFICIAL – Reggae ragga ska dub". Mx3.ch. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  2. "Exclusive Reggae/Rasta DVD's". Reggaefilms.co.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  3. "Snowboard Magazine | Method Magazine". Methodmag.com. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  4. Method Magazine, Snowboard DVD MAG nr. 2, v. 4.2, December 2003
  5. "Siwss Singjay Contest 4.6.05 Salzhaus [Archiv". Aightgenossen.ch. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  6. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 26 October 2005. Archived from the original on 26 October 2005. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  7. Article on the Swiss newspaper "20 minutes" of 6 December 2006 in the section "People"
  8. "Charly B vainqueur avec son titre My Sound". Reggae.fr. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  9. Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique – Wikipédia, Retrieved 10 November 2011
  10. "Charly B pour toujours". Reggae.fr. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  11. "header". Funambule.ch. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  12. "Programme du Caribakids" (in Italian). 2007. Archived from the original on 17 June 2009.
  13. "(Unknown)". Archives.tdg.ch. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  14. "FLY HIGH! VOL.12 – THE FRENCH LINK UP – germaica.net – makin' ends meet". germaica.net. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  15. "Stylordz achievements list". Stylordz.com. Retrieved 10 November 2011.

External links

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