Ken Boothe and Lady Ele want to ‘Smile With You’
New collab hopes to inject ‘much-needed bit of love’
LEGENDARY CROONER, Ken Boothe, has teamed up with singer, Lady Ele (pronounced Lady L) for a collab which they both hope will inject that “much-needed bit of love into the summer and beyond”.
Smile With You was produced by MottMusicGroup and GBlack Records. It has been a while since Boothe, who has been in the music business for more than 60 years, has done a collaboration with anybody and, at a listening session at Tuff Gong on Thursday, he was excited to share why this song, which has been in the making for the last two years, is so special. Apart from the fact that he is truly inspired by the relationship between Lady Ele and her producer husband, Boothe is gung-ho about the positive message. Plus, at this advanced stage of his career, he is still able to assist a female artiste with making her name in the business.
“I feel so good to be a part of this project. I really love this song ... people can listen to it and fall in love right away. I love to sing with her because I feel so comfortable. There is no hype or anything like that with her. But I want the focus to be on Lady Ele and her husband’s relationship. They remind me of me and my wife so that’s how you know it’s true love,” Boothe said to chuckles from the gathering.
Lady Ele, whose bio describes her as “an international tropical R&B artiste with Swedish and Tunisian roots with residency in Jamaica”, has spent the last 10 years honing her craft. Her début album She, Her, Ele, which was released in 2008, was partly selfproduced. In Hollywood, she sang background vocals with a choir for Stevie Wonder during his annual House Full of Toys Concert and later worked with artiste and Grammy Award-winning producer Sleepy Brown, who also signed her to his record label, 13 Black Records.
In 2013, Lady Ele released the EP, Coming from a Lady, which received a NAACP Image Award nomination for Best World Music album.
On Thursday, she spoke of her pleasure at being in the presence of an icon such as Boothe who has “years and years of experience and so many stories”. She shared that the creation process of Smile With You was “such a vibe”.
“When Peter played the track and then Ken started naturally harmonising and coming up with these melodies and our voices just started to mesh, I thought ‘Is this really happening? Am I just here harmonising with a legend in his back yard with cell phones?’ There are a lot of creatives here on the island and we started calling up people and getting things together [to record the song]. The song is about true love ... and we are just excited to share it,” Lady Ele said.
Seated in a high stool and wearing a pair of dark glasses throughout the session, the 76-year-old Boothe, after being assisted to stand, shared that his sight has failed him, “but it’s as if I have four ears now”. He also explained that he has not performed overseas in five years owing to health-related issues, but continues to work in the studio.
Smile With You was produced at Boothe’s home studio i n Kingston.