EXACTLY A YEAR after uploading their video cover of a Maroon 5 hit, NexCyx gained recognition for that recording on the world stage.
On April 3, 2013, the band emerged winners of the RyanSeacrest.com March Music Madness contest for their version of Maroon 5’s Moves Like Jagger.
When the polls closed on Facebook, NexCyx’s cover version had a huge lead,62 per cent, and was way ahead of Paradise Fear’s Payphone with 18 per cent, Joanna Burns’ Harder To Breathe with 14 per cent, and Chelsea Williams’ Daylight which only got 4 per cent.
Mahalia, lead vocalist, said that much love had to be given to the fans.
“We are absolutely thrilled about this win. [The band] were like moths to the flame, checking the percentage every minute.
“We wanted to see how the fans were coming out and supporting us. Our fans were amazing. We felt major love and support from all around the world throughout the contest.”
Andre, Chadd, Russ, Kris and lead singer Mahalia first uploaded the video cover of Moves Like Jagger to their YouTube channel on April 3, 2012. Early in March 2013, RyanSeacrest.com named the video among its top picks for Best Maroon 5 Cover.
“When we first released this video, we did it for our fans, to share our take on a song we enjoy tremendously,” said André Clarke, musical director of the band, and the brains behind the winning arrangement.
“I really love the song, especially the melody. One day I was listening to it and I started humming this completely different version, so I rushed to my phone, recorded a voicenote and it went from there.
“I think I might be Mahalia’s biggest fan. She has one of the sickest flows I’ve heard, ever! I wanted to showcase that, so I told her to forget the bridge and write a rap verse with a really quick pace that would make people say “wow”, he said, explaining the rap part of the song.
While not revealing any secrets, Kris said the band had plans to capitalize on the momentum of the international recognition.
“This is huge. Ryan Seacrest’s mentioning our name and getting a nod from one of entertainment’s top names for our interpretation of Maroon 5’s work makes the experience even more worth it,” he said.
He added that the fan base has widened, citing people from the Czech Republic, Canada and more, and “it is certainly a door-opener now and many people will know who we are when we introduce ourselves as NexCyx”.
The band said when they told people that they were in the competition they only had 0.1 per cent of votes and within an hour they came from behind in the first round to have total domination.
Drummer Chadd said when he saw the huge margin they had over the competition, they felt empowered.
“NexCyx fans are the greatest in the world,” he said gleefully.
While the band haven’t yet been contacted by Seacrest or any of his representatives, they said they were sent tweets each step of the way by the organization and when they were officially declared the winners, they got a congratulations tweet.
The band were unanimous about the huge love shown by the Barbados music industry on the whole and even the industry outside of Barbados which gave them congratulations and best wishes.
