MIRRORING the likes of R&B and pop megastars, Guyana’s very own, Julian Amerally, known widely as Jay Ammo is carving out his own path in the music scene with a sound that blends genre-defying elements and raw emotion.
A Berbician at heart, the American based Guyanese singer and songwriter has captured the ears of millions, earning recognition both locally and internationally.
“All I knew is that I had a voice, and people would catch me singing and be like, oh, you sound okay. I’m like, okay, I guess I can try to do this. And then I started copying artistes like Michael Jackson and Usher, Chris Brown, and Mario, and I just kind of fell in love with it,” Jay shared in an interview with this week’s Buzz.

He recalled his earlier childhood days in the ancient county where he first found his niche in music playing the guitar.
Jay shared that it was a godfather of his, who encouraged him to nourish his musical talents, prompting him to not only perfect his vocal ability, but also mastering the stringed instrument.

With plans now to further perfect his craft, the singer plans to expand his songwriting skills.
“So throughout the course of this year, it’s finding a new and improved kind of sound for me, and figuring out how I want to tell my story through the next couple songs that I write, so it can be relatable to people that want to listen to it, and they can feel inspired, or they can have a moment to, I don’t know, unpack emotion, or find some sort of, like, release in the music.”

According to Jay, he has always been prideful of writing his own songs.  He expressed that there have been many persons asking to write music for him, but he has declined these.

“The one person, my very, very first single that I ever released a couple years ago, I think it was in 2020, the person that wrote a verse for me on that, on that song is called Self Love, was B Nick.”

Between January and February this year, Jay released three new singles: the first being World On Fire, followed by Naked and a Valentine’s Day single titled, First Time.
These three are among a number of other songs released by Jay. These are: Accent, Fyah, Parachute, Her Way, Nervous, and One Time. Additionally, he has two albums: 4Seasons, and Red.
THE VOICE
Recently, Jay wowed the stage with an epic performance on American television series, The Voice.
He performed Ed Sheeran’s “The A Team”, leading him to have a four-chair turn from esteemed judges, John Legend, Adam Levine, Kelsea Ballerini and Michael Buble.

Heading into that competition, Jay said it was something he always wanted to do.

He shared that he auditioned two years ago by submitting a tape. Originally, he was meant to be on the 26th season of The Voice; however, it was too late for him to get on the show. After months of waiting patiently, he was selected to perform.
“I didn’t expect it to happen, but I was always anxious. And I had that in the back of my mind, like, it’s going to happen. So here we are,” he said. Speaking on his experience, Jay described it as “very professional”, and “nerve wracking”.
He pointed out that it was different to be a part of something as significant as The Voice.
Jay admitted that he was in awe of the care and planning ahead of time that it takes to put a production of such magnitude together.
“And everybody that takes part in it, even the people behind the scenes, have a major part to play in it. It’s really fascinating to get to see everything and how show business and reality TV works firsthand from being there and experiencing it.”
“I really took away a lot of positive experiences from the show and like leading up to being on the audition stage and everything like that,” the singer said.