Originally born in Clifton Hill, she relocated to Belmont and made a home here for many years. Hailed as one of Trinidad & Tobago’s most talented singer and songwriter. Once married to Dave Elcock
Becoming a teen idol throughout the 1960s and 70s. Mavis John would have a resurgence in the local music scene in the 1990s and 2000s.
While many of her contemporaries were seen to have often stayed within the Calypso and Soca genres, John lent her signature voice to works in the Blues, Jazz and Soul genres.
Though she devoted herself to her family and teaching career for many years before returning to music performance, she maintained her creative spark. Mavis John was an active thespian and singer, even starring in the play Shades of I-She, for which she won a 1996 Cacique Award. Her 2001 album, Mavis Sings, was met with wide critical acclaim, and as mentioned above, sparked a renewed public interest in her musical endeavours. Mavis has been consistently performing, locally, regionally and internationally. In June 2003 she appeared at the St. Kitts Music Festival sharing the stage with acclaimed international artists such as Ashanti, Shaggy, Jeffrey Osbourne and The Temptations.
Mavis takes us on a journey of Jazz and Kaiso giving new life to classics like 'Education' by Mighty Sparrow and 'Calypso Rising' by Gregory Ballantyne. The powerfully moving 'The Time Is Now', written by John herself, gives thanks to the Giver of all gifts and is a fitting beginning for this marvelous encore as a solo artiste. Romantic numbers like 'How Can I Love Again', 'The Sun Didn't Shine' and 'You Are What Love Is' take us down the memory lane of John's pre-sabbatical era when she blazed a trail through the region singing with popular Caribbean and international artistes like Carla Thomas, Eddie Grant, Jean Knights and Percy Sledge.
Mavis' musical career began at 16 and she became known as the 'soul queen' of the Caribbean with songs such as 'Come By Here Boy', 'We Are Gonna Make It' and 'I'll Be Your Friend'. She paused for a while from her career as a singer to embrace marriage and motherhood and to focus on her much loved career as a schoolteacher. But in the 1980s the theatre sought her out and she lent her unique voice and abundant talents to a number of extremely successful musical productions like 'Marie La Veau' written and directed by Derek Walcott, 'A Nancy Story' produced by Trinidad Theatre Workshop and the wonderfully funny satire 'Cinderama' produced by the Little Carib Theatre and directed by Helen Camps. In the mid 1990s Mavis John helped to shape the powerful theatrical production - 'Shades of I-She' a celebration of women. Mavis' voice provided the music for the poems of Pearl Eintou Springer in a production that sold out halls around the Caribbean.
She then thought the time was right to continue her journey once more as a solo artiste and in 1998, she premiered in her first solo performance since the 70s in a concert aptly titled 'Overdue'. Now a grandmother of three, Mavis John has come full circle with her album 'MAVIS SINGS'. In a fabulous collection of eleven songs, Mavis seduces and mesmerises with a voice that has ripened and flowered but still remains innocent and pure. She gives new life to old favourites and birth to new selections like 'Slipping Away' by Andre Tanker and 'Will We Make It' by Tony Wilson.
The long awaited Mavis is back and here to stay and Caribbean music scene is only the better for it.
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