Shaneil Muir steps into new season

MUSICAL maturity has the ability to unlock a certain kind of confidence, one that arrives quietly and doesn’t need a grand announcement. It comes after the lessons, the setbacks, and the moments spent pushing back against doubt and fear, into a new season marked by resilience. For dancehall artiste Shaneil Muir that confidence is beginning to reverberate through her music, with her recent songs finding renewed life across social media and her name appearing prominently in YouTube’s local rankings.

Muir is enjoying one of the most compelling runs of her career. But while the numbers offer tangible evidence of her current momentum, she believes the real story is happening beneath them. “I’ve had successful records before, and I’ve experienced moments when the music was everywhere, but this feels like a new chapter,” she told the Jamaica Observer.

“I think the biggest difference is where I am mentally and creatively. I’m not chasing a moment; I’m making music from a place that feels true to who I am right now.” That difference is perhaps most evident in the freedom she has allowed herself in the creative process. For an artiste who has always demonstrated versatility, Muir said she has reached a point at which she is no longer concerned with fitting neatly into people’s expectations.

Instead, she has settled into a clearer understanding of who she is, both personally and creatively. “I think I stopped overthinking what Shaneil Muir is ‘supposed’ to sound like and started trusting what I feel,” she said. “I’ve always been versatile, but lately I’ve been allowing myself to create without putting too many rules around it.

I’m paying attention to what feels authentic, what I actually want to say and how I want to say it.” For Muir, there is liberation in that admission. After years of navigating an industry that can be quick to define its artistes, she says she has learnt that music carries a different purpose once one “gets back to enjoying the process instead of trying to satisfy expectations”. Muir recently stood as the only female artiste among Jamaica’s YouTube top 15 entertainers over a three-month period, while also becoming the only female artiste with two songs in the island’s top 20 during that same period.

For her, however, the significance extends beyond seeing her name on a chart. “I’m proud of myself as an artiste, but I’m also proud to represent wom…