Lil'Bitts doing a lot

Shivonne “Lil’Bitts” Churche is marketing herself really well for Carnival 2004. This year, she has been taken up under the wings of the popular Bunji Garlin and will perform alongside her icon at the Uncle Bunji Garlin Children’s Show, at the Jean Pierre Complex today. Shivonne will also be gearing up for the preliminaries of the NLCB International Soca Monarch Competition today, at Club Caribbean. The two teamed up for the track “In My Country” which was released in December. “We had just completed the vocals and provided some basic background music and had to send it to Bunji who was in Grenada at the time. “When he heard it he was like ‘whoa!’ He was really excited to work with me,” said Shivonne. She, on the other hand, played the role of the stunned, speechless and nervous admirer, who had for a long time wished for a chance to work with the “Black Spaniard”. “It was amazing, somebody of his status to work and do something with me, a small artist. We have this thing that big artists don’t study about us. It was like, I couldn’t believe it. I was overjoyed... He was grateful to do the track with me and this weekend alone we were scheduled to perform at Barbarossa fete, Fire and the Children’s Show.”

The track, produced and arranged by Richard “Char Su” Ahong and composed by Shivonne, is a pure definition of what obtains in Trinidad at Carnival time. Her second track, “Doh Leh Go” “is a “Caribbean flavour tune. In it I’m saying control meh, move meh, dance with meh...ah might be looking small but ah could handle yuh,” she laughed. The “instructions” of the latter are reminiscent of her 2002 soca single “Groove Mih” in which she challenges a DJ to come “groove with her.” The pint-sized teenager who is certainly no stranger to the big arena has officially entered the senior ranks. She viewed her freshman year, 2002, as a “try out” period, a transition from the junior to the senior competitions. Last year, she tried out at the tents, singing out of Kitchener’s Revue and only made it to the preliminary round of the International Soca Monarch Competition. This 2004 season is strictly soca, she said. “I’m trying the experience. Juniors is just little people. In seniors, you’re dealing with artistes as old as those who have been making it for years. You have to deal with the gossips, the competition, who or what you should look out for... I was given tips like ‘doh take no drink from nobody’, to keep a more watchful eye but it’s more excitement, more energy and stiffer competition.”

“I’m hoping I do better this year. Although I’m a newcomer, I’m coming out strong, I’ve got talent, I wrote my own songs so that counts for something... I’m not expecting overnight success. I’m learning to creep before I walk but  I must say, it can be so frustrating that it reaches to tears sometimes,” Shivonne confided. She is assisted by her mother and manager Hemrita Churche, who is not in fearful for her baby daughter despite her petite frame. The 19-year-old, a resident of St James, began singing calypso at the age of nine.  Her energetic performances have never failed to capture her audiences, not even her sisters who sometimes gave her a hard time when she sang in the bathroom. She has let go of the reigns of her former composer Kernal Roberts and is willing to try it on her own. She still remains an admirer of his father, the late Aldwyn Roberts (Lord Kitchener) and David Rudder.