As he announced on September 30 on the occasion of his birthday, the artist has kept his word. The album AYITI was launched on the first day of the year 2023 on various online music platforms including Spotify, Distrokid and Apple Music. The singer and songwriter’s latest release features 12 tracks. The intro titled Netty is dedicated to the activist Marie Antoinette Duclaire, his former manager, who was murdered on June 29, 2021 in Christ-Roi, a popular neighborhood in the Haitian capital.
AYITI is a cry of heart and love. A way for the author of ˝Little Reminders˝, to take his fans, his compatriots through an experience that goes beyond music and draw the eyes of the rest of the world on the real problems of Haiti and remind Haitians of their true identity.
The international media only mentions hunger, misery and protest movements when referring to Haiti. What the artist deplores is that they never talk about our achievements, the solidarity that exists between Haitians. They expose our reactions without emphasizing what provoked them, while they have their share of responsibility in the degradation of the country, the native of Jeremie deplores through “Anything” which appears in fourth position on the disc and whose video has been unveiled.
For the realization of his seventh album, Jean Jean Roosevelt is inspired by the multi-dimensional crisis that has shaken Haiti in recent years. JJR addresses the massive brain drain and the generalized sauve-qui-peut. He invites his compatriots, especially expatriates, to keep their patriotism.
Jean Jean Roosevelt also pays a vibrant tribute to Jean-Jacques Dessalines, the founding father of the Haitian nation, often ignored on the international scene.
The texts of the album “AYITI” are written in several languages. A way for the author to make the message universal: Creole, English, French, Spanish, but also Lingala, a Bantu language spoken in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dioula spoken in Mali, Wolof from Senegal and Swahili.
Jean Jean Roosevelt continues to preach love, peace and unity through his works.