As Mashramani draws closer, music fans will be happy to know that their favourite local artiste Vanilla is back at it again with new music. Now, her newest single “Mash up de Place”, which was released just days ago, has already gained popularity on the airwaves and has been featured as Song of the Day, Song of the Week and Booming 9.
The highly anticipated music video for this chart topper will be released today. 
On Thursday, Vanilla continued the momentum by launching a second single for the Mash season, “We Run Tings”, then later in February, fans will see a third track being released to add
to the road march soundtrack. Though the artiste has been taking a step back from the music scene, several factors spurred her creativity which led to these new projects. Chief among these was calls from fans and support from her producer and writer Burchmore Simon to release new music. She also made the observation that the airwaves needed local music to support the Mashramani festival. “So “Mash up de Place” kind of revived it and now I have noticed more songs are being released for the season,” the artiste stated.
Vanilla also credits the efforts of Hits and Jams for helping the song to catapult to popularity, and admitted that this was the first time she has received such avid support for her music from the company and she looks forward to its continued support.
These tracks are also part of her upcoming album, which, Vanilla said, is “coming along beautifully”. Set to be released this year, songs for the album will be recorded in the Sound Garden Studio by Kross Kolor Records.
The finished product, she said, will see a fusion of sounds and a step away from her old material. Referring to it as “an experiment”, Vanilla said that the album will also feature some crossover work, including from fellow Kross Kolor artiste Gavin Mendonca.
“I’ve been working to build the brand Vanilla and so these mixtures of things will look to make the brand stronger, and that includes crossovers and mixed genres.”
Speaking of her brand, a large part of what Vanilla is about also includes film and fitness. She revealed that she is currently working on some new film projects, while continuing to build her fitness portfolio. She currently serves as an instructor at Space Gym and Fitness 53 and also leads the annual Digicel Mash Fit event – which is another project she is passionate about.
Digicel Mash Fit
This is the third year that Vanilla will be hosting Mash Fit – the six-week long fitness extravaganza that allows gym buffs to work on that ‘Mash’ body or just lose some weight through an intense daily workout.
“We get a lot of success stories every year; the first year we had about eight to 10 persons losing between 15 and 20 pounds. Last year, our aim was to get one person to lose 50 pounds and we got very close with 49 pounds,” she said. Focus is also placed on providing nutrition and other health tips during the six-week stints to help get persons on a healthier track. Seeing the way Mash Fit has impacted people’s lives, Vanilla lauds Digicel for hosting the event annually. Moreover, she commends the company for still providing the opportunity for persons this year despite not having a 2017 Mashramani band themselves.
Fans can look forward to many more projects in the pipeline from Vanilla as she continues to expand her brand with her musical, fitness and filmmaking talents.
