Ebony Empress

Portsmouth, then St. Martin: two islands, one voice

Ebony Empress is a singer from Portsmouth, Dominica. Everlyn Walters by her civil name. She has been singing since the age of ten, went through Portsmouth Government Primary School and then Portsmouth Secondary School, and moved to St. Martin in 2000 to join the University of St. Martin, leaving with an Associate's Degree in General Liberal Arts.

The stage name is not decoration: she claims it as a tribute to black beauty and African royalty, and as a direct address to all women on the way they see themselves. Musically she moves between Bouyon, soca, afro soca and calypso.

October 2021: Best I Ever Have, and the switch to Bouyon

The single that tips her over to Bouyon comes out in October 2021: "Best I Ever Have", on Erns Entertainment / SW Recordz. The label follows straight away with the Best I Ever Have challenge on social media, the title travels as much through people covering it as through people playing it.

The rest of the catalogue documents a position straddling several scenes: "Big Foot" with Temptress on the MIA Riddim, on the Grenadian side, then "Spice It Up", "Attitude" and "Somebody Son". A circulation between the anglophone Caribbean and the Dominican Bouyon circuit that few artists hold at once.

2025-2026: the Bouyon Road March, the World Creole, and Kokayoko

In March 2025 she is among the 56 competing titles at the inaugural Bouyon Road March, staged in Dominica during Mas Domnik. The award goes to "RAGS" (Trilla G, Shelly, Skinny Fabulous) with 108 votes, but being on that very first list counts, all the more for a female voice on that circuit.

In August 2025 she steps onto the stage of the World Creole Music Festival in Dominica: the catalogue comes back to the home island. In July 2026 she revisits her Bouyon single "Kokayoko" in a remix with Shawn Storm.

Her dual Dominica / St. Martin base gives her a rare circulation in the women-of-Bouyon network , a path that speaks as much to the St. Martin diaspora as to the Dominican carnival scene.