huge-voiced jazz vocalist Gita Blakeney is currently weighing up several options for the future.

Since the release of her CD a year ago, launched at a sell-out concert at City Hall, she has been chosen as `Best Musician' in The Bermudian magazine's `Best of Bermuda' and `Bermuda Gold Awards' and, just before Christmas, was the subject of an extensive interview (complete with songs) on the BBC World Service Caribbean Reports.

Now, as she fulfills engagements at the Hamilton Princess and Sonesta Beach Hotel, London is calling -- as is Canada -- and another agent is discussing engagements in Atlanta and Boston, followed by a possible tour of Asia.

Gita wants to become a cabaret/jazz singer Emphasising that she would like to become a cabaret/jazz singer ("take a ballad and give it life''), Gita expresses a belief that this overpoweringly electronic age has, in many respects, taken what she calls the `humility' out of music. "We have lost the essence of the human voice and lost ourselves as human beings. That is why I sing as I sing -- I am not interested in `bubble-gum' music...'' Acclaimed locally for both the quality of her voice (a surprisingly deep, yet smoothly controlled contralto) and a stylistic delivery which conjures up the ghosts of both Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, Gita Blakeney actually became a singer by accident.

"I'm a late bloomer!'' she laughs, "and the singing arose directly out of acting. I was in a road show for Gina Spence Productions and the role I was playing required me to sing. That was how it all began!'' Her newly-found talent, together with a background in both drama and dance training (acquired at the Jackson School of Performing Arts) set her in good stead when Greg Thompson auditioned local artists, and chose her for his famous `Follies' shows. She joined the cast eight years ago and for the past three, has been entertaining audiences in various hotels around Bermuda.

"The Follies were important to me,'' she says, "because I was able to learn about the whole process of professional show-biz -- things like putting out as much effort for a half-empty house as for a full one, for example. It teaches you to be a pro! I have a lot of growing still to do, but I never want to lose sight of myself or my dream. I have strived very hard for excellence and I've worked very hard for everything I've achieved so far.'' Few would disagree with this matter-of-fact asssessment of her abilities: in his review of her City Hall concert, Roger Crombie described the phrasing and timing of her "full, round voice'' as "immaculate'' and Gita herself as being "small in size, but mighty in energy and talent''.

Her decision to devote all of her energies to a singing career was not, at first, rapturously received by her parents. Both trained as teachers, her mother in principal of West Pembroke School. "My mother, especially, had to struggle to accept that it was a viable career for me. They tend to see careers more in the realm of education. But I have equipped myself for any eventuality that happens.'' This took the form of Berkeley Institute followed by finishing school at the Gould Academy in Maine. She attended the University of Western Ontario, followed by two years at the Sorbonne University in Paris where she learned to speak fluent French. "It's strange to think that I was surrounded by all these creative people and I never sang a note -- I was more of an observer then.'' Noting that Paris, her name is pronounced as `Jita', she says that her mother named her after a friend at university "and I found out it meant `Song' in Hindu -- so maybe there's a meaning there somewhere! At that time, it was a very unusual name for Bermuda, so my mother must have felt something, too. In France they have an expression, `raison d'etre' and I feel that singing is mine. I've never felt anything like this in my whole life before: there is a fire inside that is consuming me.'' Quoting the motto, `Luck is when preparation meets with opprtunity', Ms Blakeney is confident that she is fully prepared for that opportunity, whenever it arises. "I feel I have star quality and I'm not going to give up the fight. Without belief in yourself and commitment there is not way to success. I would like to leave a legacy behind. I would like to have children looking to me as an example of what they can achieve with hard work. It's not so much the fame and fortune I am looking for, but the road travelled -- that is where I feel happy and secure.'' On the subject of her CD she says she feels sad that "so few'' of Bermuda's singers have had the opportunity to record their work. Expressing gratitude for the "fantastic help'' she received in the making of her CD, she says her City Hall concert, besides introducing herself to Bermuda, was also a way of thanking those who have supported her.

Since then, her recent accomplishments include her appearance at a special event which featured Susan Taylor, editor-in-chief of Essence magazine, and performing at the Marketing Opportunities in Black Entertainment Convention in New York with recording artist Donnell Jones. She was also featured in the recent Jazz Festival in Bermuda when she appeared with Herbie Mann and Cassandra Wilson and was much praised for her appearance in Amnesty International Bermuda's music festival, `Jazz and Razmatazz'.

`My Favourite Things' is on sale at Music World, Sound Stage and True Reflections.

GITA BLAKENEY -- "We have lost the essence of the human voice.''