Chris Martin breaks new ground in Europe

A guest spot on Germany’s top reggae artiste Gentleman’s current single To the Top, has opened up new doors for former Digicel Rising Stars winner, Christopher Martin. Martin, who is yet to score a mainstream hit here in Jamaica, has seen a turnaround in his career thanks to the chance recording with the German star.

“It’s a good feeling to see how things are going. It’s really wonderful and it goes to show that the work that I have been doing hasn’t been falling on deaf ears”, an elated Martin said in an interview earlier this week.

The success of To the Top, the second single from Gentleman’s current album, Diversity, hasn’t been limited to Germany (where the single moved up to number 16 on the German Top 50 pop singles chart). The song is also breaking ground in other European countries including Austria, Belgium and Holland.

Asked how the collaboration with Gentleman came about, Martin explained: “The song has been in the making for two years now. I met Gentleman’s manager and told him that I wanted to work with the German artiste. He recorded a song on a rhythm that was built by Big Yard and then the manager remembered that I wanted to work with him and that’s how the link came about”.

To The Top has taken the 23-year-old Martin around the world, performing on different stages with Gentleman. Among his most recent performance was at Germany’s Summer Jam in July. He is also expected to join Gentleman on his upcoming European tour later this year.

In addition to the Gentleman collaboration, Martin is being kept busy working on several projects. His latest singles include Come Where You Going for Mosiah Music; Paper Loving for ZJ Chrome’s Cardiac Bass rhythm project; and Rude Boy for producer Christopher Birch.

Martin, who recently completed studies at the University of Technology (he did a major in Finance), released his debut self-titled album on July 7 in Japan via Rockers Island.

“The feedback to the album has been good so far and we will be going to Japan to take care of some promotions. I’m really hoping for the best”, Martin concluded.

Source: JamaicaObserver