Wanito – Kalepwa Magazine

Video: Wanito, Leve Defi A

K St. Fort — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 10:08:53 +0000

Artist: Wanito
Video: “Leve Defi A”
Directed by: Flash-One-Films

Ah, a new video from the artist Wanito (pronounced like “Juanito)!

I was a little alarmed at first, as he first comes into view. No longer the dude with the simple T-shirts or flannel shirts, he’s now sporting dark hater blockers, wears leather, a huge chain, and his pants sag slightly. An image overhaul? But, thankfully, in spite of this wardrobe change, he’s the same Wanito, whose songs glistened with hopeful lyrics.

The lyrics of “Leve Defi A” (Step Up To The Challenge) really gives the song life. I truly found all the alliteration-filled verses appealing. The beat isn’t that much different from some of the songs I’ve listened to by this artist, but at least his lyrics are consistent.

The thing about this artist is that he has the face of a newborn baby, but when he opens his mouth…I don’t know—you feel like he’s spitting out the words of a gray-bearded and gray-haired person. There’s so much wisdom in him, and a great deal of it is transposed throughout the verses of “Leve Defi A”. I like how he plays with the Creole language, and how he creates all these lovely analogies.

In the video, there’s lots of street hand-throwing from Wanito. In several scenes, Wanito encircled by youths, talks plenty of sense about the need for opposing factions to come together. Artists who take a stance of social consciousness sometimes run the danger of becoming stale, but not this one.

CLICK HERE TO VISIT WANITO’S WEBSITE| WANITO’S FACEBOOK| WANITO ON INSTAGRAM | BUY WANITO’S MUSIC ON ITUNES

5 Branding Lessons We Can Learn From The Rebranding of Singer Wanito

K St. Fort — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 05:07:26 +0000

Wanito…branding master? After making considerable impact with his debut album, songwriter and singer Wanito is making a subtle comeback, and preparing the musical terrain for his sophomore album. He’s not only concerned about showing his artistic growth, but he’s also coming at his fans in a big way with a major image overhaul. Here are some branding and rebranding lessons we can learn from the singer.

1. Communicate your desired message, and keep reinforcing it
Wanito wore leather pants and jacket for his “Leve Defi” a video…a vast difference from the t-shirts and flannel shirts and jeans that were the norm for most of his appearances. And in a lot of his public perfomances…there he was in a suit and sitting on a stool. Wanito’s message: I’m growing up and this is a new day.

2. Use the power of the internet to control your image
Wanito’s official website Wanito.com debuted, and boy, does it have some bells and whistles. Designed by the creative firm THE CCWC NETWORK CORP, the site features tabs where fans can keep up with Wanito’s tour dates, buy his latest tracks, and join his fan club. On the website, Wanito has full reign on directly communicating with his fans and the music community. Even in the 21st Century, an artist’s personal website yields power. In searches, it’ll most likely be the first hit for the name “Wanito”.

3. Be about branding, be about business…
There’s Wanito bamboo hoops now…and Wanito-branded boots for fans and supporters to purchase. I personally haven’t seen much merchandising offerings from the konpa/Haitian music genre, so power to Wanito.

4. When you don’t have any new material or product out, take little steps in letting fans know you’re still good and well.
It’s less work you’ll have to do when presenting them with new product. You must do your best to remain in their minds. Prior to releasing a new single and video, Wanito remained active on social media, and shared photos of appearances at events, including the African Entertainment Awards, where he walked the red carpet and performed. And the single and video were released weeks apart—but not too far apart—so that fans didn’t have to wait too long. At the same times, the gap between single release and video release allowed fans to absorb the single first, and set the tone (and anticipation) for the video.

5. Solidify your message with visuals
Wanito does this most expertly with his video for his track “Viens Avec Moi”, featuring singer-songwriter and fellow guitarist Mickael. In the video, a bearded Wanito shows that not only can he sit there and moan and groan about the problems of the world, but when the times call for it, he can be a most romantic leading man. He dances with, he twirls the beautiful and well-shaped leading lady in the video. Yes, he’s no longer some teeny-bopper singing about Haiti’s problems, but a grown-man who wants to be seen as one. And the video allowed for Wanito to demonstrate a new dimension of himself and his talent…he co-directed the video, so he was not only the leading man in the video, but the leading shot-caller on its production set. Within Twenty-four hours of its posting, the video received 50,000 views on one Youtube channel alone. Building anticipation and delivering within a reasonable amount of time yields fruitage.

There you have it folks, Wanito branding and rebranding lessons we can learn from the singer. Artists and other folks out there…how many can you relate to? And which one do you feel is most clever?

Your girl Kreyolicious signing off.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT WANITO

CLICK HERE TO VISIT WANITO’S WEBSITE

Wanito, Pascale Rowe, Andre Berto

K St. Fort — Sun, 14 Apr 2019 00:43:00 +0000

Kreyolicious Celebrity Sightings…in which I chronicle Haitian/Haitian-American celebrities’ moves.

Singer-songwriter Wanito was in California. He’s been working on a follow-up to his album, and his fans hope that he’s going to drop it soon. It’s a rather interesting top that he’s wearing, no? Is that design hand-painted? How original!

Pascale Rowe, better known as MsBlingMiami looked fabulous as she waited for a train in Harlem. In spite of all her success, she’s keeping humble and unpretentious.

Andre Berto made an appearance at ESPN Sports Center. He was all smiles. He sure doesn’t look like he’s too concerned about his showdown with Floyd Mayweather on September 12. The rumble is going to be broadcast on Showtime.

Garcelle Beauvais spoke to Billy Bush on “Access Hollywood Live” on NBC regarding her TVOne film Girlfriend Getaway 2, as well as the release of her children’s book.

Prajje Jean-Baptiste, who made a splash at Carifesta XII, took the time to explore the city of Jacmel. Wonder if he’ll find some inspiration there for his next season’s collection.

Vicky Jeudy took some time out of her busy schedule to spend some time with her father. In a past interview with Kreyolicious, the SAG-AFTRA award-winning, “Orange Is The New Black” actress talked about how grateful she was for her parents.

Kreyolicious singer Saskya Sky and LavieMusic were spotted posting together prior to the latter’s performance at Piano Bar in South Florida. Women supporting women! Saskya recently premiered her video for her song “Pretty Girl Whip”. Saskya has such a bold style. Look at that Mohawk-braid.

This concludes my Haitian celebrities sightings report for this Week. Stay tuned for the next edition.

An Interview With Haitian Singer Wanito

K St. Fort — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 08:18:01 +0000

Haitian singer Wanito is getting ready to release his sophomore opus. His self-titled debut was released on Peacetones in the mid-2010s, and was laden with socially-engaging tracks. Last year, he was named “Best Caribbean Artist” at the African Entertainment Awards, held in Boston. His mission is to elevate the minds of Haiti’s youths with his reggae-tinged music, and with lyrics centered on education, on the trials of new college graduates in Haiti, and other social issues, he’s hit a nerve with fans in his homeland. Meanwhile, the Haitian-American community who’ve discovered him across social media show their solidarity with him when he performs in places like New York, Orlando, and Miami.

Kreyolicious: How did you get started in the music business?
Greetings to all reading this interview. Well I come form a musical family, music has always been around me, my uncle was part of a band when I was younger so I use to hang around listening to them…I thought myself how to play guitar after I started composing music writing lyrics and telling stories and so on.👂🏽

Kreyolicious: What gives you the most satisfaction when it comes to being an entertainer?
What gives me the most satisfaction is when the people identify directly with my music, the lyrics when it touches them and they feel it’s a personal story, Their story.. it makes me feel like I speak for them directly and I do. Music is so powerful in that way, and I don’t take it lightly. 👂🏽

Kreyolicious: What would you say has been the most memorable moments in your career so far?
Wow most memorable moment? All are memorable to me, there are so many, every time I see a little child singing my music word for word, that memory never leaves me. I remember a fan told me once their child learned how to speak from listening to my music. My whole career is memorable to me. It’s the full journey.

[Photo Credit: A Blues for Micka]

Kreyolicious: Which singers have had the most impact on you?
Which singer has had the most impact on me? That’s a hard question cause I appreciate all singers you can learn something from them all. But…to name a few Reginald Cangé (for his voice), Richie (for his creative and lyrical content), Freedom (Christopher Laroche ) and The album that I most liked growing up was titled “Premiere danse ” by Nickenson Prud’homme

Kreyolicious: Where do you get the inspiration for the songs you released on your first album, and the ones you recently released?
All my inspiration comes from life in haiti, the haitian people, I’m telling my story, my experiences and other people’s stories I witnessed.. I also add my imagination at times 👂🏽

Kreyolicious: Are there other artists that you’d like to do collabos with?
Artists I’d like to collaborate with? Any artist really. If the music touches me, that’s most important. It’s not really about the person. I have to feel and believe in the music👂🏽

Kreyolicious: What are you working on right now?
I’m working on so much. The musical journey is a promising one, so I’m always working on something new whether its a new song, new beat…I’ve been producing a lot more now. I produced my last single “Mpa bezwen konnen”, and I’m working on others. New videos, new album, shows, tours and new inspiration. Thank you kreyolious for always supporting me thank you to all the fans reading this. Until next time…Sa se Wanito…

CLICK HERE to visit Wanito’s website! Wanito on Instagram |

Wanito’s Vyolans Domestik A Much-Needed Visual for Anti-Violence Against Women in Haiti (and Elsewhere)

K St. Fort — Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:41:42 +0000

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Singer-songwriter Wanito was keeping a low-profile for the latter part of this year. The one-time Peace Tones performer renewed his ties with fans with “Reyaktive”, but the song that will mark this year for him is “Vyolans Domestik”, his guitar-tinged anthem against physical assaults against women in Haiti.

Haiti, like many parts of the world, has a domestic violence problem.

Yes, indeed. Haiti got 99 problems, and domestic violence is one. In early October, an actress-mayor was assaulted by her partner in a suburb of Port-au-Prince. This was met by social media outrage, and with the actress-woman-of-state courageously filing charges against her aggressor, but so far there has been no indication that any punitive action was taken. Prior to this, a man visiting Haiti stabbed his wife to death. There were countless reports of physical abuse and deadly violence against Haiti’s women that were not met with the deserved outrage. Education about women’s rights especially among Haiti’s younger set seems to be lacking. So a song like “Vyolans Domestik” will partially do that job. Partially, I say, because that education is something that should be executed routinely.

It isn’t enough to listen to the lyrics, and bob one’s head to the melody. There’s a mind-makeover that needs to be part of a long-term process.

Let it simmer.

Songs like “Vyolans Domestik” can go a long way in raising awareness against domestic violence in Haiti and in the Haitian-American community. Wanito apparently knows that too. There’s a telling scene at the 1:38 or so mark, where he confidently leads Haiti’s youths in protest about physical assault and disrespect of women. Both genders are holding up placards and signs, each sign containing a phrase about the feminine struggle. That scene seems to want to say that this re-education process about women’s rights, and their treatment, should start with both sexes, and that the responsibility also lies with both.

You can view the Wanito Vyolans Domestik video below:

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