Sophia Brown - contributed

Sophia Brown is about to launch head-long into work as Universal Records begins rolling out their plans for the reggae singer starting this month. The sexy singer's latest single Gimmi That Good Love is to be distributed by Involved, Hooplia and Universal Records later this month and will be available at all major outlets in the United States including Best Buy, Starbucks, Walmart, and on Rhapsody and iTunes. A tentative release date of February 16 has been set for the release of the single.

Universal is also expecting an album from the singer by this summer, but before that she will be performing on a series of dates in the Bay Area of California starting February 27.

The singer who returned to the island from her latest trip to Los Angeles on Tuesday night, speaking exclusively with THE STAR expressed delight in what has been transpiring since she signed off on the one-year-one-album deal last December. "Doing the New Music seminar at the Roxy in Hollywood was really great, knowing I was the only reggae act on that bill was really fantastic and everyone was really eating me up, everyone wanted a piece of me," she said. "So that was really great and I am just looking to step it up. I am really looking forward to a great year."

While she was away the Good Love video that was released in early January here in Jamaica was recently voted the number one video on E-Strip on CVM'S Hit List. She gave all credit to her growing fan base for the success of the video. "That took me by surprise. I am truly grateful to the fans. I have nothing to do with it, the fans did it," she said.

preparing myself

Now that she is back she is preparing to attend tonight's EME Awards and the Youth View Awards and then fulfil a few interview requests before getting to work on the album that is due in less than six months. "I really have a lot of work to do," she said. "I am here preparing myself to go into the studio to get some good work done."

Universal executives, she said, are getting things ready for her to tour in several venues in the Bay Area along with hip-hop artist Scarface. "I already have a band because I started looking about that in Los Angeles to practise my music. It's just for me to take it up now and run with it along with Universal Records and Devon Gaithner from Involved Records."

The tour starts in Los Angeles at the Roxy, and involves stops in Santa Cruz, Oakland, Santa Barbara, Bakersfield and San Diego, among others. She believes this will be one of at least two tours planned for this year. "I think the fact that I have an album already and they're going to release this single, it gives me more leverage that I have something to tour with already, until the new album comes. When the new album comes I think they will set up a new tour to promote that album but in the meantime, this tour is going to promote The Spotlight (which was released last April) plus Gimmi That Good Love."

Universal, she said, is also expecting another single by May before the album drops. The album, she says, will feature reggae tunes but also a few collaborations with r&b and hip-hop acts. There is even talk about doing songs with Snoop Dogg and L'il Wayne. "They mainly want it reggae because I am a reggae act but the same up tempo beat like Good Love, so I am really going to look in that direction to fulfil my obligations to them," she said.