The Prime Time Trio Of Jamaican One-Hit Wonders

One-hit wonders. The world of entertainment is filled with them. From top-notch singing and acting talents down to magnetizing and even polarizing personalities, the art of the One-Hit-Wonder – and make no mistake about it, it most definitely is an art (albeit sometimes unintentional) – is as mysterious as it is fascinating, and here in the Dancehall and Reggae arenas, we’ve heartbreakingly had our fair share of them.

So, who or what exactly is a One-Hit-Wonder? Here’s the definition we’ll work with, taken from the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “a person, group, or organization that is known only for a single notable event, product, etc.” By that definition, and in all actuality, One-hit Wonders aren’t necessarily entertainers who’ve simply stopped producing or pursuing content mainstream media craves, they’ve simply just been people who, in a very real sense, became victims of their own success. They are implicitly given an impossible mandate to fulfill by their fans and media entities alike, which can be summed up this way – “Constantly perform at your best. Do not have lows. Your next best will NEVER be as good as the thing we’ve come to know you for. And if you make ANYTHING close to the thing we liked you for, we’ll call you unoriginal, constantly ignore your growth, demand that you change, and stifle your expressions as an artiste with senseless nostalgia of who you were, and who we wish you could be.” Whew. Easy, right?

It will do us no good to simply add people to this list, so we’ll also attempt to explore the psychology of the One-hit Wonder, conditions that contribute to it, and how Dancehall and Reggae’s rapidly evolving culture appears to care more about what’s buzzing, rather than what’s building.

Full disclosure: This list contains only entertainers who are universally talented with the potential to carve out a niche on the international scene. They are all successful within their own right, and though this list represents where they may be now, it also represents our desire to see them reclaim the heights of success they’ve proven to be capable of. Without further ado.

TESSANNE CHIN

Before you grab your pitchforks, hear us out: we LOVE Tessanne (c’mon, who doesn’t?)! In 2013, when she moved from being one of Jamaica’s best-kept secrets to a worldwide phenom and sweetheart, winning season 5 of NBC’s The Voice as part of Adam Levine’s team, we knew we were only on the cusp of her greatness. At least, that’s what we had hoped.

Tessanne’s storied resume as a performer is as elite as it gets, opening for musical legends such as Patti Labelle, Gladys Knight, Jimmy Cliff and Peabo Bryson, and even performing at the White House. But, when the international success did not come as expected following her triumph in The Voice, her fans, new and old, were left riddled with questions.

To put it lightly, Tessanne is a vocal and musical juggernaut, and with a talent such as hers, it simply does not compute that she’s not currently a staple on the Billboard Charts. Coincidentally, and perhaps this was a sign of things to come (if you believe that kinda thing), Tessanne’s post-The Voice release had the lowest sales of any The Voice winner at the time, according to Insider.com, despite the album, Count On My Love (released by Republic Records), peaking at 41 on the Billboard 200 Chart that year.

Stop us if you’ve heard any of these names before: Todd Tilghman, Carter Rubin, Jermaine Paul, Josh Kaufman, Craig Wayne Boyd… You haven’t? Well, that’s telling, as they’ve all been past winners of The Voice. Could it be then that Tessanne was always fated to end up this way as a result of what appears to be The Voice’s poor follow-up and marketing of its winners? By comparison, participants of The X-Factor, a similar talent show, have done considerably well for themselves. There’s One Direction, Leona Lewis, James Arthur, Little Mix, Olly Murs and Alexandra Burke – names you’ve probably heard before. And they all didn’t win The X-Factor. So maybe we wrongly estimated The Voice’s impact on a performer’s potential for international fame and stardom? Who knows? One thing is certain though, Tessanne is overqualified for the international music scene, and though she’s enjoying motherhood now with her adorable bundle of joy, there’s a gap in the musical world that’s Tessanne-sized. Until then, our best memory of her talent will be her winning that competition. Alas, a one-hit in that regard.

OMI

“When I need motivation, my one solution is my…” and now that we’ve officially gotten that song stuck in your head for the next couple of hours (weeks, hopefully), let’s get into it. WHERE IS OMI?

After German DJ, Felix Jaehn collaborated with Omi, whose real name is Omar Samuel Pasley, for a remix of his song, ‘Cheerleader’, it became a worldwide hit. The song currently has over one billion views, six million likes, and thousands of comments on YouTube. 2015 was truly shaping up to be Omi’s year, but when the world needed him most, he vanished. Don’t believe us? Name another Omi song. Don’t worry, we’ll wait. You can’t? Even though he released an album (Me 4 U) subsequent to that massive hit under Ultra Music, a subsidiary of Sony Music – one of the largest producers of music in the entire world? Interesting.

The blinding success of Omi’s song, Cheerleader, was a beacon for dancehall artists at the time seeking international fame. It represented a blueprint for greatness at the highest level, and was a testament to what happened when talent, hard work and luck met opportunity. There wasn’t a soul alive in 2015 who believed Omi wasn’t going to be the next big thing, but he didn’t turn out to be – at least not in the way Cheerleader’s success promised he would.

Omi’s Me 4 U album sold Gold in the US while riding on the success of his hit single, but it was not well-reviewed. In fact, Rolling Stone gave Omi’s LP a two-star rating, and had this to say about it: “Cheerleader was a years-old song that soared to Number One… [but] The rest of the songs here show an artist who isn’t quite ready for primetime.”

Despite Omi’s best attempts to dodge the One-hit Wonder curse, he ultimately could not. His last release was last month – a groovy love song titled Telephone Love, which hasn’t quite connected. It’s obvious then: his relegation to the category of One-hit Wonder was not for lack of trying. We hope to see him again.

DALTON HARRIS

When the now 27-year-old Dalton Harris won the United Kingdom’s The X-Factor in 2018, which was a legendary follow-up to him winning the 2010 iteration of Jamaica’s Digicel Rising Stars, it was certain – we had a star on our hands. But how quickly do stars fade it seems.

Dalton will most certainly be remembered for winning that competition, and perhaps only for that for the time being. Whether by intent, contract situations or other circumstances, Dalton hasn’t quite followed up on his The X Factor success since notifying fans in September 2019 that new music would be on the way. Though he released Cry, a single that performed exceptionally well and piqued the interests of fans and would-be fans alike, there hasn’t been much, if anything, from him since.

Since then, however, it’s been nothing but radio silence on the musical front (no pun intended). As a performer and as a talent, there aren’t a lot of people who can outpace the Clarendon, Jamaica-born singer, and whenever he chooses to or is able to release new music, the world may yet be reminded of that. Until then, Dalton’s most noteworthy musical moments may be found on The X-Factor’s YouTube page.

Seriously though, the label of the One-hit Wonder is more subjective than it is objective. It is an indirect criticism that is packed with nostalgia and desire, built on the hope that those in the fray of the label will rise to the star power we know they have. But, entertainers are people too. They get tired, their goals change, their priorities change, and their ambitions do too. Some are content having seen the mountaintop, while others desperately try to reach it again. Whichever category any of the aforementioned artistes fall into, as supporters, we may be better served to wish them the best in whatever they do. It’s not selfish or idiotic, however, to ponder what might have been, and we’ll continue to. Nothing may bring us more joy than to see their glorious resurgence.