For almost a year, singer James Germain has lived in Fort-de-France. Exiled from his native country, Haiti, Martinique welcomed it with great affection. He wants to make his talent available to his adoption island.
The love story between James Germain and Martinique began in 1995. It was at the end of his album “Kafou Minwi”.
He had sang “Mesi Bondye” with Malavoi. The song, Written by Frantz Casséus, the father of the classic Haitian guitar, is on the brown album of Malavoi.
Martinique adopted me. Choosing a country to live, it has to be a place where you feel good.
On May 18, 2024, he laid down his suitcases in Fort-de-France. He is no longer the artist who comes for a show, hosted at the hotel and who dines at the restaurant.
He lives like a Foyalais. He learns the history of Martinique through his traditions such as Bèlè and Danmyé.
He shops at the market where he meets his compatriots.
On January 1, Haiti’s independence feast spent the day with the members of a Haitian association. He sang.
The Haitians who recognize me come to speak to me. We see the Haitians as the people who came to take the work of the Martinicans. But a Haitian wants to integrate and they are not the people who come to do nothing. What impressed me when I walk in the city was to see that the Haitians opened shop.
James Germain thinks that Haitians are a bit “withdrawn from Martinique” because of the distrust of them.
We have the same story and I think we have to give someone a chance. It is a people who fight every day. This resistance made that we still hold.
James Germain, one of the greatest voices in Haiti, who sang with the best artists in his country and elsewhere, wants to share his knowledge with the Martiniquais.
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He describes himself as an ambassador of the sacred rhythms of descendants.
Trained in classical singing and jazz song, his passion remains the voodoo songs.
In January 2025, as part of the week window (s) on Haiti at Tropiques Atrium, James Germain achieved, for the second time, a Master Class. Each edition was complete.
It was moving. There were really shy people. A lady I thought who was never going to open her mouth ended up singing at the microphone for the first time.
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©Caroline Popovic
For James Germain the music must always tell a story.
Sometimes he gets up with an idea in the head. This inspiration, he says, comes from the universe. You just have to “To make available” To hear it.
Singing is beautiful, but if it is singing to sing, I will have already left this job. For me it is a mission.
In 2018, during a collaboration with the DJ Boddhi Satva, the texts came by singing.
James Germain lived in Haiti where he was born in 1969, in Paris, the Republic-Dominican and Mali. He spent a lot of time in Benin.
I have always been an exile, by my story. Most of us do not know our origins, our roots. The fact of having been in Africa, in Benin, I feel like I have found a part of James who lacked.
This is another life that begins for James Germain in Martinique. Its mission is to bring people together around the richness of Caribbean culture.
