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"Every year we have our share of breakout music artists that hit the scene and totally explode with their fresh new music. And now you can go ahead and add Shontelle to that list for 2008! The Barbados native is fresh on the scene and taking radio by storm with her debut single &amp;quot;T-Shirt&amp;quot; (if you&amp;#039;ve had your radio on any Top 40 station at all within the last month you&amp;#039;ve had to hear it). So sit back, relax, and get to know Shontelle. YOUR DEBUT ALBUM IS CALLED SHONTELLIGENCE, WHY DON&amp;#039;T YOU GO AHEAD AND TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT IT? Well the album comes out on November 18th and the very first single is &amp;quot;T-Shirt&amp;quot; which I&amp;#039;m very happy to say is doing really, really well right now! I got the opportunity to work with a lot of great producers on the album like Wayne Wilkins who did &amp;quot;Bleeding Love&amp;quot; for Leona Lewis as well as Stargate and SRP who do a lot of music with Rihanna and other artists so it&amp;#039;s been a really great experience so far. THE LEAD SINGLE &amp;quot;T-SHIRT&amp;quot; IS DEFINITELY STARTING TO TAKE OFF AND DO REALLY WELL. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO GET SUCH A COOL RECEPTION ON YOUR FIRST SINGLE? I still have to pinch myself sometimes because it&amp;#039;s very surreal! It feels like just yesterday I was a regular girl in Barbados going to school and trying to be a lawyer and then this! And I was warned about every artists nightmare like there was going to be things that may not go exactly as I want and be prepared in case that happens, and I was prepared but luckily so far I haven&amp;#039;t had to live any of those nightmares...so far so good! AS A SONGWRITER A LOT OF YOUR SONGS TEND TO HAVE A VERY EMPOWERING MESSAGE IN THE LYRICS. IS THAT SOMETHING YOU AIM FOR AS A SONGWRITER? My personality is very fun-loving, and I love being a goof-ball and being silly, but I&amp;#039;m also very conscious of what&amp;#039;s going on around me and things that are happening in the world. I realize that a lot of people are thinking the same thing, but everyone doesn&amp;#039;t have the voice to say it and put it out there. To me it&amp;#039;s really important to put music out there that brings awareness to certain issue that may be going on and it&amp;#039;s also my way to get things out there that&amp;#039;s on my mind and share it with everyone else because I know there are others that feel the same way. YOU ACTUALLY KNEW RIHANNA BEFORE SHE REALLY EXPLODED AS AN ARTIST ON THE SCENE. HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL TO SEE HOW HUGE SHE&amp;#039;S BECOME? I feel like a proud big sister! I remember the first time I met her I had no idea she was into music like that, I didn&amp;#039;t even know she wanted to be a singer. She always had really striking features so I really thought she was going to grow up and be a model or something, and then one day I was listening to the radio and it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Pon de Replay&amp;quot;! I&amp;#039;m really, really proud of her though! WHAT DOES SHONTELLE DO IN HER FREE TIME? If I was back in Barbados, I&amp;#039;d be on the beach! I love to body-board and I have a lot of friends that surf and we just hang out on the beach! I love to watch movies, so now that I&amp;#039;m in New York I watch a lot of movies! I rent and buy tons of DVD&amp;#039;s and watch those or a group of us will go to a theater and catch a movie. But other than that it&amp;#039;s just me trying to find time to catch up with my family and friends so I&amp;#039;m addicted to Facebook...it&amp;#039;s a problem! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.seventeen.com/celebrity/a10517/qa-shontelle/>