Jamaica has not had a popular child star since the days of Junior Tucker, Nadine Sutherland and Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers. All these mentioned child prodigies were teenage singing sensations who grew up to be established reggae stars. Not to worry though, sure enough there is a teenage singing sensation on the rise, her name is Alteen Campbell, aka Serial Kid and she hails from Montego Bay.
The second of five children, Serial Kid was raised in a very disciplined home by her mother Monica Campbell and her rastafarian father Albert Campbell. Growing up, she never had time to idle or play around on the streets. Most of her time was spent between school and home. She attended St James and Montego Bay Prep Schools and Mount Alvernia High, where she was successful in Accounts, Principles of Business, Social Studies, English Literature and English Language in CXC Examination and Human & Social Biology in GCE. Currently she is pursuing a three year course in Business Adminstration at Montego Bay Community College.
Although music has always been an integral part of her life, she has only been singing for three years. It was while she was in the tenth grade at mount Alvernia that she started singing in public. Her classmates who had always listened to her during the lunch break encouraged her. She took their advice and started performing at school fairs, concerts and fetes. Eventually news of her talent began to spread, and she was invited to perform on several stage shows in Montego Bay and Hanover.
Little did she know that her dreams of becoming a professional singer were about to become a reality until she met Ralston 'Rallo' Barrett in 1996. At the time barrett was scouting for a female artist and one day while he was on business in the second city, popular Mobay deejay Jah Matches introduced them. On meeting the young lady, Barrett was very much impressed with her singing that he immediately wanted to become her producer and manager.
He took her into the studio to record a cover version of R Kelly's 'I Can Fly' on a wicked rhythm built by the legendary Sly & Robbie. The song received encouraging air play and she is now back in the studio working on her debut album. There are several singles to be released before the album. The first will be a cover of the classical 'Tia Moir' featuring rising DJ Lexsus from the Studio 2000 Crew.
Serial Kid says she likes perform live on stage because she enjoys making people happy by sharing her talent. She adds that she enjoys the positive response she receives whenever she performs, as this encourages her to do her best for the audience always. She has performed on quite a few stage shows in Mobay, Negril and Hanover, but her biggest break to date came when she performed at Dancehall Night at Reggae Sumfest 97'. She gave a very good account of herself in a performance that gave her positive response from the audience. Serial Kid says that judging from the vibes she got at Sumfest, she is ready to take on the music world. This confident youngster says she wants to be a positive role model to other kids, and she is encouraging them to listen to their parents, stay away from drugs, take education seriously, believe in God and be ambitious.
