GUYANESE gospel artistes Samuel Medas and Enea Benjamin are set to launch their newest albums next month, with Medas’ star-studded launch and concert set for the tarmac of the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on December 2, and Benjamin’s slated for December 16 at South Ruimveldt Garden’s Restoration and Life Ministries.
Benjamin will be launching her album “Rising Higher” while Medas will be launching his fourth studio album “Royalty”. Both albums have been garnering a lot of positive reviews. Benjamin previously provided background vocals for fellow Guyanese gospel artiste Cherlyn Malony for many years in the Gospel flames and Gospel Ambassadors Bands for several years but has not branched out to singing in the forefront.

This will be the second album for Benjamin, who became well known for her unifying single “We Are One”. Rising Higher will include seven tracks, including a remake of “We Are One”, and follows Benjamin’s debut album “No Limits”, which was launched in 2015.
The album is one that has been a long time coming for Benjamin, with the track listing including her 2015 singles “Created to Worship”, and “Just Sing”, there is also “Here I Am”, another of Benjamin’s more popular songs, while other songs are other songs are the title single “Rising Higher”, “God”, and “I’m So Glad to Be a Christian”.

Benjamin feels strongly about using her music to get the message of love, unity and her deep love for God and her Christian faith across, and this album has been no different. She hopes that persons come away inspired after listening to her songs.
“It’s been pending a long time and I just feel it’s the right time,” Benjamin told The Buzz.
“Most of the songs are inspired first and foremost by the Holy Spirit, and by experiences as it relates to life as a whole. “We Are One” is mostly for the nation. The Ministry of Culture sponsored the remaking of the song, so I decided to include it on the album. The song talks to the nation that we should come together as one for the better of Guyana, to have a better country,” she said.

Royalty
Meanwhile, Medas’ “Royalty” album launch and the concert has been gaining quite the hype over the past few months, even more so when it was announced that the lineup would include Jamaica’s DJ Nicholas, who Medas collaborated with on the album tracks, and who is a particular favourite among Guyanese.
There’s also John Yarde out of Barbados, Blessed Messenger from Trinidad, and Lt Stitchie. They’ll all be backed but a powerful line up of local vocalists, including Melissa Vandeyar and Christina Richardson, who is also set to debut her own album “Out of Zion”.
This will be Medas’ fourth album and is shaping up to be his most successful to date.

Though Medas had been working on tracks for the album since early January of this year, it was the release of his hit single “Royalty” in May that really brought it all together. The most surprising thing for Medas was the spontaneity that started “Royalty” and the major response received.
“I always knew I had music that I wanted to record but I just didn’t have a concept, which was disturbing for me because every other project that I did I knew exactly what I wanted to do,” Medas recalled.

“I was at a concert around April of this year and I was just talking to the people. It was just good vibes and I just freestyled the hook ‘My daddy is a king so I am royalty’. And it was just one of those moments when you sing something and it resonates with you that this could be more than a freestyle. So I went to the studio, recorded what I had, added a few verses and I released it, and people just ran with the thing and it became the title track of the album.”
Though Medas had an inkling that it would definitely be one of those songs that would catch on easily, the subsequent response from fans just blew him away.
“I was surprised. I had no idea that it would be received like this, honestly. But I think I’m only now starting to understand the depths of ‘Royalty’, and what it means to a lot of people,” Medas noted.

“The kind of reaction is not so much pertaining to the song, it’s the fact that my music is now getting out there in certain circles. First of all, people think I’m Jamaican because of the quality, and because of how I sit down on the reggae genre- not so much because of the music but because of how I embody the reggae genre,” he said.
And it’s not just his local fans that have been taking notice of the quality of Medas’ music, the 28-year-old was also blown away by the international response and the bookings have just been coming in ever since.
Medas has been in high demand all year, performing several times in the US, as well as around the Caribbean, including in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Antigua, Barbados and St Kitts to name a few places.

All the international exposure has been pushing the singer even more to improve the quality and standard of his music. All of this follows Medas having copped the “New Artiste of the Year” award at the prestigious Caribbean Gospel Music Marlin Award back in March of this year.
The album also sprouted a few collaborations with other Caribbean artistes. Outside of DJ Nicholas, the album also includes “Sell Out” featuring Blessed Messenger, an artiste that Medas has always admired and was honoured to work with.

His “Jah Arise” collab with DJ Nicholas was also included on Nicholas’ “The Audiologist” album and is one of the album’s top-selling tracks on iTunes.
Medas is also looking forward to ensuring that he truly delivers a worthy experience come December 2, particularly because several international fans have already booked their tickets and accommodations to travel to Guyana just to share the moment.