SONGWRITERS MEET IN NEGRIL!

JENNIFER Hudson’s next big hit may very well come from a group of songwriters and producers currently locked in a creative session at the Rockhouse Hotel in Negril.

The group is part of the C2W Songwriting Camp which started last Saturday. It is organised by C2W Music Publishing and scheduled to end Friday.

BERRY… C2W Music Publishing’s executive

“She (Hudson) is not looking for album tracks, but singles. She needs songs with swag, no degrading men” were the instructions from C2W Music Publishing’s Ivan Berry to the group prior to their assignment.

The group comprises reggae singer Etana, Jukebox from Los Angeles, who has worked with Willow Smith, Chris Brown and Ludacris; Rob ‘Tron’ Wells (Toronto), whose résumé includes Justin Bieber, Backstreet Boys and Selena Gomez; Rupert Gayle (Jamaica/Canada), who has worked with Mindless Behaviour, Amber Riley (Glee), Rachel Crow (X-Factor); Carlos Battey, known for his work with Madonna, Flo Rida, Sean Kingston, and Ron Isley.

The camp will come to a close on Friday. According to Berry, he is expecting big things from the sessions.

C2W Music Publishing is the Caribbean’s first publicly listed intellectual property company on Jamaica’s Junior Stock Exchange. The camp is the seventh staged in the Caribbean but the first in Jamaica.

For Berry, it is an opportunity to show how much money can be made from the music industry.

“I wanna see that we create wealth for our Caribbean songwriters and shareholders, and prove that we can be accountable and transparent while creating wealth,” he told the Jamaica Observer.

Berry, who hails from the island of St Kitts, says the Caribbean has never been short on musical talent. He points out that more attention should be paid to artiste development.