Aidonia Opens Up About Early Struggles In Dancehall
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing in the music business for Dancehall artist Aidonia, who says there were many bitter moments before his big break came. He opened up about his journey to success in the industry at the launch of Campari’s new campaign dubbed ‘Respect the Bitter’, held on Saturday (June 4).
According to the Yeah Yeah deejay, some younger fans may not even be aware that he has been in the industry since the early 2000s, and that he got his big break almost a decade later.
“Coming into the industry me never have it easy. I have faced a lot of struggles over the years. In the early days, at that time, them use to say me can’t perform, I had clarity issues when voicing on stage and so we respect the grind because me love the music,” Aidonia told DancehallMag.
“So, over the years, me challenge myself to get better at recording and to get better on stage, to get better at dealing with my image, to get better at dealing with types of crowds, the street crowd different from the corporate crowd, different from the uptown crowd. So, you know, it’s just the bitter, the struggle, the hustle, the grind fi just push myself to get better because we had the talent but we needed work,” he added.
Similarly, Marketing Director at J. Wray & Nephew Limited, Pietro Gramegna, noted that just as Aidonia has grown from strength to strength, so too has the Campari brand, which makes the artist, who was announced as the brand’s official ambassador, a perfect pairing with the alcoholic beverage.
“Engaging Aidonia as Campari’s Brand Ambassador was an important but easy decision. Not only has he worked with our brand in the past, we found that his story of hard work to triumph resonates with our new Campari campaign as well as with our wider audience,” said Gramegna.
“The Respect the Bitter campaign was created to further connect with Campari’s consumer base and wider target audience. The ethos of this campaign is to encourage our consumers to believe in their respective passions, through challenges or hard times, as at the end of hardship – the reward is worth it. It is important that people are able to see themselves in this campaign, which is why we engaged ‘passioners’ such as barbers, muralists, dancers, musicians and trained mixologists with whom our target audience can relate to,” Gramegna added.
Campari and Aidonia started their partnership in 2017 with the Rumpari Freestyle, solidifying their connection.
Aidonia, whose real name is Sheldon Lawrence, is known for songs such as Pon Di C-cky, Pretty Please, Nuh Boring Gyal, Jook So, and Yeah Yeah. His latest song is Psychopathic , a collaboration with Intence released in March this year.