By Sheldon Williams – STAR Writer—

Songstress Naomi Cowan is no stranger to the stage or to music, as she is the daughter of two of Jamaica’s well acclaimed entertainers, Tommy Cowan and Carlene Davis. But notwithstanding her familial ties, she described her entry into music as involuntary.

“Honestly, I think it was a matter of music choosing me because music was one of the most healing expressions of art that I knew and before I did music professionally, I really was not happy with myself and I realised I was suppressing a lot of who I was,” she told THE STAR.

“Music was one of the few ways where I truly felt like myself, and so I realised that by not holding back my voice and my singing I felt more freedom,” she added.

Cowan said that her parents influenced her to pursue music.

“My parents have always said, ‘Whatever you choose to do, we will support you’. Those are the kind of people they are, there was never any persuasion on their part, they have always just facilitated. However, naturally because of who they are, yes, they have influence because I grew up my whole life seeing them do it, but in terms of my decision to do this, it was never their persuasion. They have always given me the space to be whatever I wanted to be,” she remarked.

The singer released her first single, Naked in 2015, but at that time her attention was not fully on music as she was in college.

She reasoned that naturally being the offspring of celebrity musicians impacts her because it provided early exposure.

“I think the first way it impacts is that this career feels like home to me, being in studios, being in rehearsal spaces…when I think of my existence as a person, I didn’t think I would really exist if it wasn’t for music, she” said.

Despite whom her parents are, Cowan reasoned that there is no automatic advantage for success.

“The music industry is all about the songs. It doesn’t matter how pretty you are , how much you think you can sing, none of those things matter if you don’t have the songs. In this industry it doesn’t matter where you are from or who you are, in this industry you have to have the songs and the songs have to gain traction. In this industry everybody’s journey is their own and you still have to put in the work. Yes, there is a small advantage, but not to the point where I have any advantage over anyone else,” Cowan said.

Her most recent project is entitled StarGirl, which is a 13-track EP that was released by Walshy Fire last year. The pop and reggae singer recently released the new video for the song, Holiday, which is one of the tracks on the project.