Lightworker. Soul rebel. These are the words Jamaican-born, Toronto-based reggae artist Ammoye uses to describe who she is.
She’s also a seven-time Juno nominated artist currently on her first major US tour. And she’s on her way to Calgary very soon for ReggaeFest!
Reggae artist we understand. But what is a lightworker, a soul rebel?
“When you’re living the path of the soul, you’re rebelling against society’s ways of dictating how you should be, who you should be, how you should look, how you should represent yourself,” Ammoye says, from her Toronto apartment.
“I call myself a lightworker because I feel like I’m working with the frequencies of love and light, that’s the energy I’m working with.”
It’s a huge part of her music, she says. “Whenever I’m onstage that is the intent, to heal through music, through whatever energies are coming through me, to activate you, inspire you, uplift you, motivate you to go out and do what you love and share that with the world.”
Her spirituality is important to her. She underwent a major transformation in 2012 when she lost her voice completely. Was her career over? It was terrifying but ultimately a wake-up call, she says.
“I got the opportunity during that time to connect with my spirituality, my higher self, and it changed everything for me. It changed my voice, my writing, my music, my purpose. Everything was transformed. I’ve been living from that space of sovereignty and living a purposeful life ever since,” she says.
It changed everything for her, she says.
“It affects everything, my stage presence, the songs I write, the way I respond to my audience, to myself, to the planet. Everything. I see life in colour now.”
That transformation was the ultimate inspiration for her upcoming album, The Shift. It is scheduled to come out early next year.
“I’m super, super, super, super, super, super, excited about The Shift,” Ammoye says, and laughs.
“It’s like a song documentary, a song autobiography of where I am in my life right now. It’s also meant to shift you, when you listen to it, into more of what you are becoming, who you are becoming, who you want to be.”
Ammoye’s had a wildly busy summer, including the aforementioned American tour but next on the horizon is Calgary’s ReggaeFest. She says her connection to Calgary and to Leo Cripps, CKUA host and co-founder of ReggaeFest, makes it extra special.
“I’m just excited because I love Calgary,” she says. “I’m just so excited to connect with my Calgarian soul rebels. And I love Leo, he’s such a supporter of my work and so anything I can do to support his festival and to connect more with my audience on that side of Canada, it’s a pleasure for me.”
Ammoye’s “On The Dock” from her 2021 album, Water: