Change is inevitable, but the choice to change always remains. Every sphere of a human’s life is bound to modify. From lifestyles to food to cultures, everything has, in some way, evolved with time. Music has been the most widely understood and has been reconstructed with time. Although music today has advanced, the roots of its origin remain intact. A person who has stayed true and has not forgotten his ancestral roots is Jowy Cenat – a Haitian musician and pianist.
Jowy’s Journey Rediscovering His Roots
Jowy had always been inclined towards music but not just any music, the music that connected him to his roots. Born in Queens in New York, Jowy was thousands of miles away from his forefathers and often felt unattached. He had a strong impulse of wanting to reunite with his family back in the Caribbean. A solution to fill this void was to remain connected with music, and for that, he decided to learn piano. He became a self-taught pianist at the age of eleven.
He was burdened by managing studies, soccer, and music. Daily soccer practices continually drained Jowy at night, which had diminished his motivation to practice the piano, so he quit. But, not something he could keep away from for too long.
In 2010, Haiti had been hit by a disastrous earthquake, and an estimated 250,000 people had died. The natural disaster reunited Jowy with his relatives. He traveled to Port-Au-Prince in Haiti to check on his family. There Jowy learned how people used music, zouk, in particular, to cope with the trauma of suffering from a catastrophic earthquake.
When he returned to the States, he resumed his schooling at the Atlantic County Institute for Technology (ACIT). He was greatly inspired by the zouk music and the Caribbean music genres in general. He used this inspiration as a tool and began practicing piano again. This time he practiced the Zouk beats, which expedited his growth in piano. Jowy was so moved while playing the Caribbean beats that he could actually feel the notes as he played it. His fondness for music and attachment with his roots kept him motivated to practice piano at late hours, after his exhaustive soccer practice. Although his routine was tough and tiring, he always managed to spare some time practicing the zouk beats on the piano, which gave him mental solace. He often had flashbacks of his time spent in Haiti with his relatives. He remembered how the people swayed and danced to the tunes of zouk during the miserable times. They still had a smile on their faces and a lot more to be thankful for.
From Vision to Reality
Jowy graduated in 2020 from Stockton University with a Health Sciences degree and a dual minor in Holistic & Public Health. He did not abandon his dream of pursuing music and continued practicing and performing for universities privately. He leveraged the technology to boost his personality as a musician and began creating musical content for all his social media platforms. Jowy’s engaging content became the reason for his organic growth. Soon he gained thousands of followers from all across the globe and found a foolproof way of turning his passion and social reach into a comfortable profit. His followers admire his unique style of fusing classical stylings of the piano with the contemporary sound. His diverse music range and distinctive taste led him to cover ‘No One’ by Alicia Keys (one of his most viral videos), a Kompa spin to a French song titled ‘Ou Etais Tu’ and the beautiful track ‘Novule Bianche.’ Some of his favorite composers range from zouk Caribbean music to peaceful Ludovico Einaudi and contemporary classical music.
He is backed by the powerful social media’s support and uses YouTube, Instagram as platforms to express himself and his extraordinary musical fusions. In addition to his viral videos and fantastic musical covers, Jowy has also published a book named ‘Video Influencer Authority.’ The book focuses on methods to use one’s vision, passion, and purpose to increase their impact through online video while being an undergrad in college. His book was named on the best-sellers list by The US Reporter, The New York Weekly, and Amazon. Jowy uses his philanthropic social media power to coach anyone looking to build a solid social media brand and builds awareness about various mental health issues.
Currently, Jowy Cenat continues his passion for being a musician and has, along with that, smartly taken up different roles to serve the community as well. He aspires to grow as a content creator and be a ray of hope and light through his music for those struggling or in a difficult life phase. With his ability to whip up magic with his amazing taste in music, he believes he has the strongest tool to spark a change in many and bring back what is forgotten.
