Teino Evans, Staff Reporter
Members of the trio N'Voy (from left), Nicola Mitchell, Nadine Miller and Tenesha Bonner. - CONTRIBUTED
THE TRIO N'voy was birthed out of a common vision to share the message of truth through singing. Tenesha, Nadine and Nicola, have been making their presence felt and their motives are clear - they were called to bring a message of change.
To name the group the English word 'envoy', which means carrier of a message, was given a twist and changed to N'voy to specify that they are carriers of God's message.
"We officially started singing in 1998 at the Tastee Talent Contest, where we reached the semi-finals, but before that we use to sing in devotions at our old high school (Jonathan Grant)," Nadine Miller said.
However, it was not until after the Tastee contest that they decided to seriously pursue their singing.
N'voy has entered and won a number of competitions, being the Youth For Christ Vocal Trio for three consecutive years from 1999 to 2001.
In addition, they have performed throughout Jamaica at events such as the Prime Minister's birthday ceremony, Love 101's anniversary, Fun Fare 2002, Back to Basics, Gospel in Motion, Genesis and the JCDC Gospel Festival.
The group has also performed background vocals for artistes including Joan Flemmings, Radic, Shelly-Ann Watson and Ziggy Soul.
Their entry in the Grace Tropical Rhythms Jamaica Gospel Competition 2005 is Cry For Change, produced by Geoffrey Thomas, which has got them to the finals.
This is the third year that N'voy will be entering the gospel competition. Nadine says they had originally entered as background vocalists.
"The first time we entered was in 2003. We entered as background vocalists for Kerron Ennis and five other artistes that year. We decided then that we wanted to do something for ourselves and we entered JCDC in 2004, where we met Robert and Jenieve Bailey and they offered to write our song. They wrote Call On Me and we entered that song," Nadine recalled.
According to Nadine, the group entered the competition again this year again and is now in the finals."We weren't actually going to enter the festival this year, but while fasting one Saturday in January we got the word from God that we had more work to be done, so we prayed to him for a song for the festival," she said.
The outcome was a message of change, "change that was needed in the society, in people's social living and also a change within ourselves".
"We hope to get more publicity to ensure that the message is brought across and right now we are on the road shows and we are doing what we were called to do," Nadine said.
"If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways he will look down from heaven and heal their lands. And that is what we want, a healing for our land and that is why we are crying out."
