Caribbean Up-And-Comer Umpa Is on a Mission to Bring Saint Lucia’s Dennery Segment to the World: ‘We Need to Become the Face of Our Sound’

Music has never been more globalized — and Saint Lucia is dancing its way to the center of the global stage.

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Pioneered in the island nation’s Dennery District, the genre is a drum-heavy, chant-forward offshoot of soca that blends elements of kuduro and zouk with Kwéyòl lyrics and a dancehall attitude, distilled through a distinctly Lucian lens.

With larger hits like Freezy’s “Split in Di Middle” helping the genre gain more notoriety across the Caribbean near the end of the 2010s, this decade has been defined by several sizable Dennery segment hits, including Dezral & Jardel’s “The Car,” Shemmy J’s “Ms Grippy” and Andrew’s “Biscuit.” And as the inaugural winner of the Caribbean Music Award for Dennery segment artist of the year, Umpa has cemented himself as the leader of the genre’s current wave.

For the artist born Brendan Jordan Charlery, 32, his musical journey began with a karaoke set his mother bought him as a child — and he was probably singing a Vybz Kartel song.

“That was my first time actually getting on a mic,” he tells Billboard .

“I remember my aunt told me that I had a voice made for a mic, and from there, I just continued.” He also found that singing helped him process the harsher realities of the world around him: “Music was my escape from poverty and the hungry days. [As] Bob Marley says, When the music hits, all the pain goes away .” Like many children, Umpa spent his school years freestyling with his friends, performing behind their desks, in the streets, and at bars and shops around the area.

Eventually, his best friend convinced him to record his own songs, and those early cuts caught the ear of several local DJs and early fans, helping him graduate from a laptop-and-mic setup to professional recording studios.

By 2014, all of that steady momentum culminated in the song he calls his “first local hit”: “Gwatel,” which he recorded on Jammin Records’ Revolt riddim.

With a bonafide hit under his belt, Umpa continued grinding for the next few years, eventually linking up with record label and management company Young Boss Entertainment around 2019.