Jean Mary Papin is undoubtedly a born artist. From a very young age, he already felt and displayed this desire to sing, and demonstrated the ability to produce marvelous works that only he could understand and express the meaning. At the age of 14, he began singing in cultural activities in his neighborhood.
He was not afraid to face the stages, which allowed him to perform in recreational days, shows, theater performances and others. With a truly surprising child’s voice and the ability to make people move, Jean Marie filled spaces when he held the microphone in his hand. Many began to advise him to keep this path. At school, he always faced scolding from his teachers who often asked him to leave the classroom because he couldn’t help but live out the talent he had. On the school playground, during recess, he attracted crowds of students when he sang rap for his classmates. When he knew that singing was a talent for him that he could not ignore, he decided one day to officially launch himself and start writing his own lyrics and finding rhythms appropriate to his style.
After months of diligent work, he was able to record and release on the airwaves his first major title “Cheri Mwen Renmen’w”, accompanied by a video clip. This clip which propelled him to the rank of the best artists of the time did not prevent him from proving that he had more than the voice and the singing talent. A few months later, he joined one of Haiti’s talented videography and cinematography professionals, Guy Elie, who taught him the basic elements he needed to be the camera and editing console specialist he it has become today.
Became a Christian in 1990,
when he met Jesus Christ in his life, Jean Marie decided to change his mind by raising very high the visual aspect of the evangelical sector which at the time was considered completely virgin territory in this domain. He joined Alabanza Studio, headed by Carl Henry Joseph, the only evangelical studio in existence during this period. He worked on all of the Alabanza Group’s music videos and he also directed those of Didi Jeremie and the groups Adonai and Divine Mystery.
There community Haitian evangelical music then experienced considerable growth, emerging from point zero at the level of best evangelical music video. From his very different and very rhythmic style on a musical level,
In 2001 Jean Marie Papin, accompanied by several church leaders, launched an unprecedented reform in evangelical music: Kanpay Kanpe. This campaign of evangelization through music, spread over a period of three months, brought together the majority of the best groups and artists of the time for a national evangelization tour. This successful tour even attracted the attention of the presidency which generally financed the closing of this tour which was carried out at the country’s national stadium, the Sylvio Cator Stadium.
Jean Marie Papin had no difficulty in directing his professional career and that of an evangelical singer. He was adept at identifying his priorities. For years he worked alongside great Haitian directors such as Joe Doré, Arnold Anthonin, Jean Claude Bourjolly and Raynald Delerme, who did not hesitate to testify to his aptitude, his professionalism and his penchant for the world of multimedia, particularly cinematography. He worked at Radio Lumière, at the advertising agency Image et Marketing and finally at Scream, an agency specializing in audio-visual, managed by Christina Guérin and Joe Doré.
This experience gave him the opportunity to direct video clips for artists including Beethova Obas (Gad Devan). He also worked on the production of the first Digicel advertising spot and the filming of the 20th anniversary of Emeline Michel’s career which broke the record for the most popular video clips on the small screen in Haiti. This momentum allowed him to rise,
In 2005, his own video production Paty Plus Production.
In 2006, Jean Marie Papin left his native country to stay in Canada for about FOUR years, during which he married his wife Rachelle Jean Baptiste who lives in the United States. The time spent in Canada refined his talents and improved his professional skills, which made him a director. During his stay in Canada, he directed several video clips and films including “Cantankerous”, a film by Paul Henry Athis with the participation of several well-known Canadian directors: Graphy Junior, Benz Antoine, Jean Alix Holmand.
He even won the First International Prize for the film “Fait Ton Choix” by NOM LA PERSONNE. He joined his family in the United States, where he continued to impose his style and his touch, totally different from what we knew in the evangelical community. Wanting to demonstrate that his silence was not a total abandonment on the musical scene,
In 2011, analyzing the evolution of Haitian evangelical music in the United States, Jean-Marie Papin noted the weakness of the community’s artists. But, instead of criticizing them and ignoring their efforts, he preferred to bring together on the same stage a good number of the artists who had accompanied him during the Kanpay Kanpe evangelization tour and he carried out, in Florida, a concert bearing the same name.
These artists coming from different places and countries, after all these years of separation, gave the best of their performances for the spiritual success of this concert. That wasn’t all, he had more up his sleeve. After holding a microphone to sing the glory of God and show off his singing talent.
In 2012, Jean Marie Papin decided to make a strong return to his country after years of absence. So, he developed a structure and founded a Christian company for the production and promotion of evangelical artists in the name of NUKlean Entertainment.
