- Carlington Wilmot/Freelance Photographer
Amanda Cat, born Monica McLean, at six years old is one of the youngest deejays to hit the Jamaican stage.
OUTLOOK MET the kindergartener recently when she was brought in for an interview by her father, deejay Johnny Cat. She was not inhibited by her school gear and swung into a set with her father with cool aplomb.
Amanda, perhaps, could have been more aptly named after a parrot.
The tyke is a non-stop talker, and several times would take over from her father in explaining to Outlook some point or the other.
Dad, Johnny Cat, was born Anthony McLean and says he used to perform in Portmore, St. Catherine. "Me alone (would perform), but the applause didn't make it (was not enough)." So he started to perform with his son. Still the response was not what he wanted.
It was then that Amanda, then only two years old, looked at her father and said to him, "the things that my brother can do, I can do better." Her Dad recalls, "I, said show me." What she did was very good, he says.
Amanda was a 'born' dancer with performance tricks that delighted her father then and which, in the last three years, have drawn howling applause at stage shows islandwide.
Johnny Cat, a tyre-repair man who still works at his job in Waterford, says that he and his daughter are booked for Sting, the annual dancehall show that is held on Boxing Day in St. Catherine every year. The prestigious booking tells you how far they have come.
The moment when everything changed for them, Johnny Cat recalls, was really when he entered the Tastee Talent Contest in 2002 at the prompting of friends. The father and daughter duo entered and were winners of the semi-finals. They went on to place third in the grand finals. Tastee was responsible for providing the team with significant exposure.
Performances
Since then, they have performed at the Bounty Killer Birthday Bash, Bling Dawg Summer Jam, several performances in Ocho Rios, Negril, Manchester "We went to Manchester two times Daddy" chimes in Amanda Cat who is, unbelievably, the more outspoken of the duo.
The six-year-old has her own way of expressing her joy over the many kudos which have come her way since the Tastee triumph.
"Here Amanda , here," she mimics, gesticulating while telling Outlook about the numerous gifts which she has received in the last year.
Her father says that she is the proud possessor of several watches and CD radios. He says that he has also opened a special account for her out of which funds earned will be used to pay for her education. "I am creating a future for Amanda Cat," he hastens to assure us.
In her usual voluble manner, Amanda interrupts to tell us that she also has a piggy bank and that she puts her money inside instead of taking it to the shop.
"I love to sing," she also told us when questioned about her hobbies. Her favourite artiste, she says, is Bounty Killer 'because he sounds so good'. Amanda Cat is definitely a dancehall devotee, a fact indisputably proven when she later demonstrates all the latest moves and some special ones of her own.
Her father says that she continues to delight in dancing and is even involved in the process of making songs. "Sometimes she makes up lyrics by herself and I put them together," her father says. The majority of songs which the duo perform, however, are written by him.
Amanda is a student of Harvis Temple Basic School in Portsmouth. Her father says that although he and mother are not currently contemplating a special school for her, they hope to find one which teaches music.
According to Johnny Cat, his wife Marva McLean is delighted with her daughter's progress. Amanda is the youngest for her parents with four brothers Danato, Squiddly, Ginger and Marky who are aged 15 to 20.
Dad says, "She takes the music seriously." In our opinion, the youngster is having tons of fun. Her parents hope that she will enjoy the success of other Jamaican child performers who include such names as Junior Tucker, Carlene Davis and Beenie Man.
- Avia Ustanny
