I believe that I have a place at the top of the industry: Dati

Our interviewee is pop and R&B singer Dati.

At what age did you realize you should start singing and when did you begin your career as a singer?

I always knew I was supposed to do music, I just had that feeling in me. I had the passion and the drive for as long as I can possibly remember. I started doing music professionally when I was 19 years old. I was living in Jamaica at the time and finally decided to actively move towards the future and the dreams I had set for myself.

You are also a dancing teacher. What do you think, is it important for a singer to have dancing qualities? Does it help to attract more people?

Yes, I used to be a dancing teacher. I don’t think it’s a must, or that it is essential. Depending on what type of music you do. But for my genre and for me—yes possibly.

I like to see a full show with performances. It’s great to have dancers but I want to see the artist put on a full show and therefore I have chosen to take the path of dancing and singing.

Would you like to be famous all around the world, and what is the main obstacle for you to that end?

Fame is usually not the goal for a true artist. You can be famous for many things today. But as an artist you would like for your art and craft to be recognized all over the world, yes! And have people use what you do to their own best ability and appreciate it as much as you do. The main obstacle I would say is timing. Everything has it’s time and place and I believe that I have a place at the top of the industry.

In your opinion, what does an artist need to attract large audience and, at the same time, to be a memorable artist?

I think the first thing is to study what you do or want to do and do it well. The second is knowing your market and finding out what the audience wants. Third to love what you do; then you will execute all your work from recordings, writing, performing to interviews with a sense of passion and your audience will feel your emotions and carry them with you.

Do you think music education is important for a singer, and do you have music education?

Absolutely. In anything that you want to do in life you have to mix two ingredients according to me. First—passion/desire, second—education. One without the other is a lot of times not very sustainable. Yes, I have gone to vocal coaches to learn and I will continue learning about vocals, instruments, production, the industry and so one. Education is essential.

What do you think about music festivals? Do they help new singers to become a celebrity and carry a big audience, or they give short pleasure of being famous, and then the artist is forgotten?

I absolutely think they can help once audience to grow. I don’t think it’s enough to do one festival and be recognized. The dots usually have to connect in order to form a line.

Besides the festival you have to make sure your music gets out there and that you are being booked for interviews, other performances and so on. But I think festivals are great platforms for an artist. It’s a privilege for any artist to participate in festivals.

What are your plans for the future?

The nearest plans for the future is that we are going to be in Africa a lot releasing a lot of new music and videos this year, do media tours and expand our brand. We just Launched Tida Records www.tidarecords.com so all our music is going to be released under Tida. It is a very exciting time for my brand at the moment and we are looking forward to growing our audience base such as in Armenia like we are doing now.