CHANCE TO SHINE
Annual Honey Jam concert gives female musicians a platform to get noticed,
In 1995, when Ebonnie Rowe hosted the first Honey Jam concert featuring an all-female lineup of aspiring musicians, it wasn’t to mint platinum-selling artists.
“It was just a party and everyone was there for the love,” she says.
That began to change after their 1997 showcase. Rowe recalls a silence falling over the crowd as an unknown singer, a then 19-year-old Nelly Furtado, took the stage. “You could hear a pin drop,” she says.
That night Furtado met the Philosopher Kings’ Gerald Eaton, a.k.a. Jarvis Church, who would work with her to produce the demo that landed her a record deal. “It was really when Nelly Furtado got discovered that things changed and it became more serious,” Rowe says.
Now, as Honey Jam prepares to celebrate its 24th concert featuring female musicians from across Canada, mainly aged 14 through 24, the event has grown into an annual showcase at which the industry is known to scout for rising talent.
The event originally focused on women in hip hop but now welcomes all genres. Among the 20 musicians in this year’s lineup are performers trained in opera, jazz and spoken-word.
Alumni include hip-hop artist Haviah Mighty, whose debut album 13th Floor is shortlisted for this year’s Polaris Prize; and Jordan Alexander, who co-stars opposite Juliette Lewis and Ryan Kwanten in Season 2 of the Facebook Watch crime anthology series Sacred Lies: The Singing Bones. Five Honey Jam artists were on the CTV singing competition The Launch while artists such as Anjulie and Melanie Durrant have been recognized by the Junos.
When Toronto R&B star Jully Black performed at the first Honey Jam concert in 1995, she was still a teenager who had yet to record a single. “Back then, we didn’t have likes, views and follows to compare,” she recalls. “It was all about our show. We were doing it not even to be discovered, but just to hone our skills and to be a part of this sister circle.”
The industry attention proved to be a double-edged sword. Before Tarana Burke’s #MeToo campaign became cultural shorthand for sexual harassment, Rowe recognized the way in which producers and record executives would abuse their power to exploit young women.
“Men in the music industry would descend on these women (as they came) off the stage with that whole, ‘Baby I can make you a star, come back to my studio at midnight’ line,” Rowe says. “I would watch this from across the room and feel very protective. I would see how naive they were.”
It inspired Rowe to introduce a day of mentorship to prepare the artists to navigate show business. Today, the program includes more than a dozen dream opportunities for an aspiring musician, including one-on-one vocal and performance coaching, and attending a songwriting camp.
Mentors have included Erykah Badu, Janelle Monae and Jessie Reyez. The artists are also invited to Drake’s OVO Summit, held every August. The conference is for creative entrepreneurs and features such influential behind-thescenes players as Drake’s producer Noah (40) Shebib.
During auditions for Honey Jam, Rowe looks for musicality and stage presence, but also for women who have something to say. “That’s more important to me than a good beat,” she says.
It’s a concept illustrated by Haviah Mighty’s 13th Floor, in which she raps about such topics as institutionalized racism and the legacy of slavery in the U.S. Mighty participated in Honey Jam in 2011, 2012 and 2015. She credits her one-on-one sessions with vocal and performance coach Elaine Overholt for helping her develop her stage persona.
“For those who think they can wing a performance, I learned from Elaine that there is so much more that goes into being a strong performer,” Mighty says. “(Professional musicians) understand exactly what they want to look like onstage. Nothing is a whim. My live performance is what garnered the interest of my team, my booking agent, my management.”
For Honey Jam’s 25th anniversary next year, Rowe wants to find new ways to bring her talented roster to people’s attention. She’d like to have an artist sing the anthem at a Toronto Raptors game or book a Honey Jam alum to present at the Junos. Cuts by the Ford government, specifically to the Ontario Creates fund, have made maintaining funding challenging, but Rowe remains inspired by the work.
“It has had such a huge impact on the young women,” she says. “It uses every skill that I have and skills that I didn’t know I had. It is spiritually and emotionally fulfilling to me to have a purposedriven life.”
Honey Jam 2019 is Thursday at 8 p.m. at the Mod Club, 722 College St. Tickets are $20 and can be bought at honeyjam.com or at the door. “It was really when Nelly Furtado got discovered that things changed.” EBONNIE ROWE HONEY JAM ORGANIZER