Album Notes

At the age of 19, Manze Dayila floated onto Miami Beach on a ragtag raft filled with fellow Haitians seeking a better life in America. After a treacherous trip that saw the refugees detained in Cuba for a month, Miami beach-goers crowding around the vessel gasped when they realized one of its young passengers was about to give birth. A local minister arrived on the scene and took Manze to a local hospital. Seven days later, a baby girl was born.

“You hear this voice?” Manze asks. “That is why I sing the way I do today.” Goose bumps...Manze has lived the blues, yet chooses to sing a universally positive message. It’s power is underscored by the richness and depth of her voice.

Discovered while singing in the New York City subway by Producer Jamie Propp of As Is Entertainment, and recorded over three years with Adam Chalk, Propp recalls the first time he heard Manze singing. “Within one song she transported me through the entire range of emotions. I will never forget that song.” That song was Dayila’s original “Solé,” now the a cappella title track of her debut CD.

Manze performs with her band the Nago Nation, including percussion/vocalist Evens “Zelebo” Seney and rapper Bennchoumy Elian. Her debut CD “Solé” features her beautifully crafted pop songs in english (“That Feeling” & “ I Want To Be Free”), arrangements of the Vodou (‘racine’) songs, sung in Kreyol, which she learned from her ancestors, and electronic remixes of roots music that clearly establish Manze Dayila as the “Empress of Vodou Music.”