Music in her bones

Reggae songstress Sevana strikes a pose during an intimate gathering on Friday evening to celebrate her latest single, Jeans an’ Marina.Karl McLarty If one were to choose a word to describe Sevana, multi-talented would certainly be in the running. The Jamaican creative has spent years moving between worlds, so much so that when things appear quiet on one front, chances are something else is unfolding behind the scenes. And if her recent absence from the musical spotlight left anyone wondering where she had been, Sevana has a simple explanation. “When we’re quiet one place, we’re working in the next,” she said. On Friday, the singer welcomed specially invited guests into an intimate, house party-style gathering at Cherry Drive Estates for the release of her newest single, Jeans an’ Marina. Recording artiste Elle is one of the specially invited guests at the Jeans an’ Marina house party on Friday night. (Photo: Karl McLarty) The relaxed setting was fitting for a song inspired not by glamour or exclusivity, but by Sevana’s memories of community, simplicity, and the kind of Jamaican togetherness that requires little more than good company, music, and somewhere to gather. It also marked Sevana’s re-emergence into a space she insists she never truly left. “I was working on a lot of acting projects while you weren’t actively hearing from me on the entertainment scene, but I was still making a lot of music,” she told the Jamaica Observer. Sevana has been acting since 2017, but in recent years has deliberately positioned herself “a little deeper into that world”. Koffee (left) shows up at the Jeans an’ Marina house party at Cherry Drive Estates on Friday evening to support fellow entertainer Sevana. (Photo: Karl McLarty) Her growing résumé includes an appearance in the Robert Nesta Marley biopic Bob Marley: One Love, while she is also featured in UK series Possession, now streaming on Sky TV, in which she plays an escaped revolutionary woman. She has also landed her first starring role in a feature film, Threads of Us, which she said is currently touring the United States. “I have different projects that I’m pushing at the moment,” she explained. But for all the creative lanes she has been exploring, there remains one that feels particularly like home. “Music is my first love, and it is the thing that has continued to save me time and time again,” Sevana shared. “It’s not something I can let go. It’s in my bones, it’s in my blood and I love it. I will never stop.” Her return, then, is perhaps less of a comeback and more of a refocusing. Sevana said she resisted the urge to release material simply for the sake of remaining visible, choosing instead to build a catalogue she genuinely believed in. Deejay Anash (left) and Circa Eleven elevate the evening’s party vibe as Sevana celebrated her latest release, Jeans an’ Marina (Photo: Karl McLarty) “Navigating the entertainment industry, it takes a lot out of you, especially if you’re trying to do multiple things at once,” she said. “I was really committed to putting together a body of work that I could be really proud of once I hit the ground running again.” She wanted, she explained, to feel excitement about everything she eventually shared. “So I wasn’t in a rush to push any singles or anything until now.” That patience has brought her to Jeans an’ Marina, a record whose roots stretch far beyond the studio and all the way back to Sevana’s childhood in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland. The inspiration was partly sparked by what she witnessed following last year’s Hurricane Melissa. Even amid the sombre mood that engulfed sections of the country, Sevana found herself reflecting on the way Jamaicans instinctively pulled together. “That’s the vibe I was going for on this single. I wanted it to feel like a coming together,” she said. But the feeling was familiar. Growing up in Savanna-la-Mar, Friday nights offered Sevana an early lesson in what community could look like when stripped of pretence. “Every Friday night the community would gather in the square under the street light to just hang out,” she recalled. “We’d play dominoes, ludo, listen to music, buss a one beer and just relax.” There was no dress code. No pressure to manufacture an image for the evening. Nobody needed an elaborate outfit or an exclusive invitation. “It never felt like pressure to get all dolled up or anything like that. You could wear weh yuh have, and everybody had jeans and merina. You would put it on and just come out and have fun,” she said. It is that uncomplicated sense of belonging that Sevana has attempted to bottle in the new single. “The idea back then was for the community to come together and heal each other, and that’s what this song is about — being unified and arite,” she said. The singer then went on to share that Jeans an’ Marina is not a standalone return to music. It is the opening note of what she hopes will be a sustained new chapter with her next single expected at the end of September. Sevana then plans to release new music every month heading into 2027, tracks that may eventually culminate in something much bigger.