Tanya Stephens Ready For Shaggy & Friends

Tanya Stephens did not attend the previous Shaggy & Friends show, nor did she see any footage of the performances or happenings at the groundbreaking entertainment event. Stephens, who never minces words, harbours a degree of distrust for charity initiatives in general. None of that prevented her from quickly saying yes to appearing on the lineup for the renewal of the show come January 2nd at Jamaica House.

“At he end of the day, it’s a great cause, its for the kids,” she said in a telephone interview. “Shaggy’s cause is really my cause, as I feel very strongly about he need to provide proper care for our children. So it’s not that I even need to have any great familiarity with the show or the format or anything like that.”.

The singer-songwriter is looking to the imminent release of her seventh album (her previous effort was “Rebelution” in 2006) and typically, its title is geared to raise questions “Well, the title is Infallible and that’s taken from one of the songs, which is actually saying that I’m not infallible. I know in terms of what I do musically, I look at my work as unbeatable, but in terms of my humanity, I’m very much fallible and that’s keeps me grounded and working harder to put out better and better work.”

With a slew of hits including “Yu Nuh Ready Fi Dis Yet” “It’s A Pity” What A Day” and “These Streets” she hasn’t done any wrong musically thus far, and the fans attending the upcoming Dare to Care show may well be prepared to accord her the “infallible” status implied (even if its tongue-in-cheek) on the album.

Stephens has also recently branched out as an entertainment entrepreneur, opening the H2O restaurant/lounge in Ocho Rios. The spot has been holding its own since opening in January, she says and its weekend live music sessions have witnessed the likes of Marcia Griffiths, Tinga Stewart (“everybody still ask me when him comin’ back”) Kris Kelly, Diana Rutherford and Rising Stars winners Chris Martin and Brown Sugar.

For her own performing schedule, Stephens says she’ll be heading “wherever promotion takes me. The album will be out, so I’ll be doing all I can to keep it out there.” In between, she’ll continue to scale the new business owner learning curve (“there have been some surprises, but if there were none, then I would be surprised”) and perfecting her songcraft.