Ernie Smith’s children carry on music5 min read

Among the highlights of the Solid Gold, held at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston, last Friday were Ernie’s children Ojay and Sahara Smith performing In the Living Years with their father.

In the first segment of the show, which celebrated 50 years of their father’s music, they also showcased their talents individually.

Sahara shared with The STAR “I selected my song Don’t Doubt Me Now,” “Usually, my brother sings it. I always wanted to sing it.”

Ojay and Sahara are members of the 10-year-old Florida-based reggae band, Resolvers. They are the lead vocalists, along with Ron Eisner. And so understandably, they performed their father’s songs.

They also spoke of their favourite Ernie Smith song, as well as their childhood. “It was wonderful. We couldn’t go on tours with him, but when we do go to shows and festivals, we meet a lot of people. We get to go backstage and meet Rita Marley and Ziggy Marley. Growing up was fun.” Ojay said.

Sahara concurred, but, on their favourite songs, they differed. For Sahara, it is Don’t Doubt Me Now “definitely.” Ojay, on the other hand, has a toss-up between the light-hearted songs Ride on Sammy and Duppy Gunman as “they are about fun to me.”

Ojay and Sahara are also proud of what their father has done for Jamaica through his songs and hopes he does a lot more.

After the initial surprise on learning from The STAR of their father’s pledge to donate part proceeds from Solid Gold to assist Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes (JAVAA) members, they were amazed and excited. “He should do that and that shows what a great man he is and how much love he has for Jamaica,” they said.