by Howard Campbell
SOUTH FLORIDA – The music video added another dimension to artist promotion when cable channel MTV exploded during the 1980s. In 1991, teen singer Dwisdom topped Jamaican charts with My First Real Love, but the song had no video, a rarity even for an unknown act.
On July 21, 32 years after the ballad’s release, its video debuted. Filmed this year in South Florida, it is directed and produced by Steve HoSang for Digital 1 Media Service.
Written by Dwisdom, Willie Stewart, Neville Hines and Ian Hird, My First Real Love was co-produced by Stewart and his younger brother Pablo, who died in 2002. It was Pablo who introduced the Dwisdom to Willie who was drummer for the Third World band.
“He believed in her talent and when we recorded the song and I heard her voice I understood why. Pablo and I had a gut feeling it would do well but never to the massive hit it became in the hearts of our Jamaican people,” said Stewart, who lives in South Florida.
My First Real Love topped Jamaican charts for multiple weeks. A slow pop ballad, many fans thought Dwisdom was American or Canadian, and the absence of a music video for the track added to its mystique.
Stewart believed the time was right to change that. Dwisdom, who has toured with Beres Hammond as a backup singer for over 20 years, traveled to South Florida early this year and shot her scenes for the video.
“I know the song still has the magic today as it had the first day it was released because everyone who hears it for the first time falls in love with it,” said Stewart.
The London-born Stewart is younger brother of bandleader Byron Lee, who was also owner of Dynamic Sounds, the largest music distribution company in the Caribbean.
He was a member of Third World for 21 years, playing on the band’s classic albums such as Journey to Addis which contained Now That we Found Love, their biggest hit song.
Stewart also co-produced and co-wrote Boris Gardiner’s hit song, Love Inside of You and co-wrote Lieutenant Stitchie’s hit single, Night And Day.
He is best known in South Florida as conceptualizer of Rhythms Of Africa, an annual event that salutes the origins of percussive music.
