SINGER/SONGWRITER MINNA LaFORTUNE, RELEASES HER FIRST REGGAE SINGLE “SUMMER LOVE!”

Minna LaFortune Launches her first Reggae single “ Summer Love” and her Jamaican Festival Song 2022 single “Jump and Whine” respectively, on all major online music platforms. Additionally, her debut pop album is on the verge of completion. “Summer Love” was written by Minna and was skillfully arranged using genres of reggae and Hip hop fusion. It describes a romantic relationship that occurred during a summer season that fizzled, leaving her very lamented.

Minna Lafortune is a life long singer/songwriter/poet but is new recording. When asked about her music, she responded “my musical journey started with my mother, she always sang to my brother and I, she was also a folklorist. Before we had television, she would entertain our extended family with duppy stories, and songs. She died when I was 12 years old and my brother was 14. From an early age I wanted to be a singer, I wanted to sing Opera and Jazz. My life long dream has been to sing on the Jamaican Jazz and Blues Festival.” Minna has experience singing in styles ranging from classical, to jazz, ballad , folk and Reggae. She studied voice at Adrienne High School where she sang on the school choir, directed by Dr. Noel Dexter, OD. And as a result of her classical training, she won a soprano soloist Bronze medal at the 1977 annual Jamaica National Music Competition. Minna also sang in the church choir at Lyndhurst United Methodist Church, and later joined the Methodist Choral and then the Diocesan Festival Choir, directed by Dr. Hazel Lawson-Street.

Migrating to the USA in 1986, she joined the Vanderveer Park United Methodist congregation in Brooklyn , New York, where she sang on the church choir. While at Vanderveer UMC ,Minna founded and directed the African Caribbean American Singers (Afro-Carib-A Singers.) 1992-2003. She collaborated with musicians such as Teddy Crawford, Molendyno Gayle Moxey, Oscar Stephenson, Raymond Trap and Jeffery Fairweather as well as E Wayne McDonald Director, Caribbean Cultural Theater and Actress/Storyteller, Marcha Tracey. In addition to producing several performances at Vanderveer United Methodist Church and around the tri-state area, Minna also managed entertainment and fundraising activities, while performing as a soloist at various other functions.

Her musical influences are varied but not limited to Marcia Griffiths, Gregory Issacs, Dennis Brown, Judy Mowatt, Bob Marley, Delroy Wilson, Phyllis Dillion, Alton Ellis, Peter Tosh, Barrington Levy, Jimmy Cliff, Johnny Nash, Miriam Makeba, Nancy Wilson, Lou Rawls, Tom Jones, Burt Bacharach, Louis Armstrong, Diana Washington, Dionne Warwick, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, Miriam Mathieu, Edith Piaf, Sam Cooke, Ben E. King, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Etta James, Janis Joplin, Sade, Seal, Nora Jones, Carole King, Rod Stewart, Barbara Streisand, Jennifer Hudson, Kathleen Battle, Jesseye Norman, Audra McDonald and Leontyne Price. Minna LaFortune’s debut album is produced and arranged by Lee Holness, from The Art of Music Online Media Studio.