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Leighton Levy, STAR Writer
US singer Macy Gray.
It took just one phone call from Shaggy and Macy Gray came running.
Gray, who shot to fame in the late 1990s on the back of her hit I Try will be one of the headline acts on the 'Shaggy and Friends' charity concert to be held on the lawns of Jamaica House on January 3, 2009. The concert is to raise money to buy much-needed medical equipment for the Bustamante Hospital for Children.
The 41-year-old singer, producer, and part-time actress, who was born Natalie Renee McIntyre, has been involved in charity work during her career, primarily raising money for Habitat for Humanity. In 2005 she created the Macy Gray Music Academy that, among other things, gives under-privileged children the chance to perform.
I'll do it!
So when Shaggy called, that, and her love for kids, made her come running. "He called my manager one day and my manager called me and said he was looking for me. We got on the phone and he told me what it was all about and I said 'I'd do it' so here we are," said Gray, the mother of three children from her eight-year marriage that ended in 1998.
"I decided that if I could help in any way then I should. I didn't have any other reason standing in the way so there was no reason not to do it. And I am really excited about being there," Gray told The STAR yesterday.
Gray's debut album On How Life Is released in 1999 was a smash, selling more than three million copies, but since then she has found it hard to replicate that success. Subsequent albums were disappointments. The Id released in 2001 sold just over 500,000 copies and The Trouble with Being Myself that dropped two years later sold even less despite getting rave reviews.
Still, Gray announced this year that she is coming out with a fifth studio album which she said was going to be different but will still reflect who she is.
Organic soul
"We've been working on it for about a year. It's very fresh. It has electric beats but the melodies are still soul, so organic, so it's different," she said. So far everybody I have played it for loves it."
Gray was unable to say whether she will be performing any cuts from the upcoming album at the 'Shaggy and Friends' concert explaining that she has not yet discussed with Shaggy what she will be performing come January 3.
"I have no idea what we're doing but I know it's going to be awesome," she said. "We're sharing his band so we have to figure out exactly what we're goin' to play."
What she does know is that she won't be making the same mistake she made in Barbados early last year when she was kicked off stage for using profanity during a performance and had to issue a public apology to avoid being arrested.
"I had no idea that was a law, it was crazy," she said recalling the experience. "When I got to the dressing room the police were waiting for me. I didn't even know what they wanted. I thought they were fans or something."
Gray says she has definitely learned her lesson.
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