Lil’ Bits ‘Bumps’ into the spotlight

FULL speed ahead into her second big year, Lil’ Bitts (Shivonne Churche) said she is much stronger to deal with the “frustrations” that come along with being an emerging entertainer. Her 2005 Carnival releases, “Bump” and “Crush” featuring Sean Caruth have propelled the 20-year-old into some of the more popular spotlights for the season. Although she pulled out one of her oldies last Saturday at Fire fete, she commanded the attention of the thousands gathered. One of the pluses she has had since her 2004, “Carnival In My Country” was the opportunity to visit several countries, regionally and internationally. She was even recalled in Canada for an encore performance after a successful stint there.

“This has helped me to improve my performance,” said Bitts, who is managed by mother and older brother team Emerita Sambrano-Churche and Yohann Sambrano. “I feel like I have one foot in the door already, but while it feels great seeing your hard work paying off, there is still the crying and feeling of giving out. There are still some trials — the fight down, the politics. Now I’m in another category competing with other female artistes. Then there is the problem of payment from promoters. I’ve learned that one big song doesn’t mean that it will be easy sailing after. It is a lot of hard work. And you have to go through it.” All fired up from her recent hit off the Christmas riddim, “Esta Fiesta” produced by Richard “Charsu” Ahong, Lil’ Bitts was eager to take on her Carnival projects.

She linked up, once again, with mentor and songwriter Kernal Roberts who can rightfully be credited with launching Lil’ Bitts’ career. “‘Bump’ was intended to be my one Carnival tune, and then Kernal came to me with ‘Crush’. He picked up a keyboard and started to play the melody, he had no words. And finally, I had to be behind him to get the words and we went to the studio.” Work on the “Crush” video begun this weekend, as “Bump” was released on Friday. “‘Crush’ is a groove song, actually it has a little more mellow than groove and I was surprised that the students on the school tour took it in so well,” Bitts said. Bitts is part of the Coca Cola Good Vibration School Tour which ends its run on January 24. She had just returned from a performance along with other artistes at the Curepe Junior Secondary School.

She concluded her first of three sessions of the lecturing programme of the school tour last week and was disturbed by the feedback she received from the majority of students at one of the schools. “The school tour this year is showing the youths that we are not just about jumping up, but rapping with them. I spoke about how I became a soca artiste and its challenges. The main focus was on HIV/AIDS and STDs awareness. From what I saw, kids weren’t really interested. I got the impression that they were only interested in the performances and it was frightening to know that that was how they felt. You could have seen too that a lot of them did not know about HIV/AIDS,” Bitts said. She isn’t straying from her goal — “to let my people love me. That’s the foundation, so when I’m ready to go out there (international arena) I have their backing.” With an unwavering support from her family, brothers particularly who keep her in check, she is determined to fulfil it.