#better than the white authors that are hero worshipped (and that’s regularly despite the white author being fucking racist)

[lewishamledger]

Paris in London

Mica Paris will be starring in the panto version of Beauty & The Beast at the Broadway Theatre this winter. The singer, who grew up in Brockley, reflects on her multi-faceted career in showbiz

WORDS BY EMMA FINAMORE

 Mica Paris is not one to rest on her laurels. The singer, actress, author and presenter left home at 15, and by 19 she had signed to Island Records, released her debut album So Good and was a household name with smash hit tracks like My One Temptation. Her knack for combining pop and soul with jazz leanings – like many new artists based in south London today – proved an instant hit.

Her debut album went platinum, and set the tone for her whole career, which saw her go on to work with the likes of disco legend Nile Rodgers, hip-hop heroes Eric B & Rakim, Boy George and Prince.

This Christmas Mica will be working much closer to home, near where she grew up in Brockley – treading the boards at Catford’s Broadway Theatre as she stars in its Beauty & The Beast pantomime.

It tells the story of Belle, who longs for romance and adventure, and a bad-mannered prince who is transformed into a beast to teach him a lesson. Mica plays the Good Fairy who swoops in to the rescue, making both their dreams come true.

Mica’s own fairytale began when she was a child. Her grandmother noticed her talent for performing when she was just four years old, as she sang along to the theme tune of kids’ TV show The Adventures of Rupert Bear.

When she moved from Islington to a big Victorian house in Brockley aged eight, her grandparents encouraged her to join the choir at their place of worship, the New Testament Church of God on Lee High Road. Her granddad was a minister there, and it was where she sang her first ever solo performance.

“I was the star of the church, you know?” Mica recalls, speaking from the back of a taxi in Belfast, where she’s en route to the theatre for makeup and costume before a matinee performance of Fame – the musical she’s been on the road with for the past year and a half.

“I remember looking down and seeing my white socks and shoes – we didn’t wear those shoes any other day than Sunday.”

As well as taking childhood friend Gabrielle with her to church – “She always wanted to come” – Mica’s household was a hotbed of talent. “My dad is the one with all the gifts really,” she says. “My aunts and uncles too – the house was full of music, whether it was ragtime or Mozart.”

One of Mica’s sisters, Paula, is also a singer, performing under the alias Alisha Warren in the 1980s and 90s. Dawn, the eldest, is an academic who’s just finished a PhD, while their cousin is none other than former world champion boxer, Chris Eubank.

Mica says this wealth of creativity and talent came from a work ethic that ran through her whole family. She was soon fully immersed in her grandparents’ church, performing there and at other places of worship, entering competitions and recording music. “There was choir practice, Bible study, I was winning awards all over the country,” she recalls. “There wasn’t any time to go out to play.”

By her mid teens she was performing regularly with the Spirit of Watts gospel choir and was ready to forge her own path.

While she says many of her friends in Brockley were planning on moving into their own flats and starting families, she had other plans: “I knew I didn’t want that, and I was ready to do my own thing.”

Mica made a demo with someone else at the church and it immediately garnered interest from record label executives. She moved into her own place in east London and was offered a deal by Island Records. “But I had to persuade my grandparents to sign the contract for me,” she laughs. “I was too young to legally do it myself!”

Even though she did manage to convince them, Mica says her grandparents were concerned that a career in the music industry was a pipe dream – and that “all people in music ended up dead or on drugs”.

That’s definitely not how her career went though. After seven studio albums, one compilation album, four EPs and 27 singles, Mica has also been honoured with the Gold Badge Award by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors – for her contribution to the British entertainment industry.

Despite these successes, she says the main highlight of her musical career was showing her grandparents that she could be successful, and that there was another way you could have a life in music, rather than going off the rails.

“A year after I left home they were watching me on Top of the Pops,” she smiles. “I’ve lost lots of friends to that sort of thing [drink and drug issues] but I never went down that path. I think I could always feel my grandparents in the back of my mind.”

Of course, her story doesn’t stop with music. Mica has crossed over into radio too, hosting Soul Solutions on BBC Radio 2 – interviewing big names like Alicia Keys and Motown legend Martha Reeves – and narrating several music programmes for the station.

She’s presented documentaries – like Channel 4’s The Gospel of Gospel, exploring the influence of the black American church tradition on pop music – and has acted and contributed to panels on various TV shows (look out for her in ITV’s Marple, playing an American jazz singer performing with Louis Armstrong’s band).

This summer she’s been making more programmes for Radio 2, called Mica Meets, interviewing artists like Sister Sledge and Gladys Knight (of The Pips).

“I think they open up to me more than they would to someone else,” she says, of shifting between the role of artist and broadcast journalist. “Because I’ve been there, I know what it’s like.”

Mica has put this experience to good use through writing too, having published a book about finding confidence and happiness in your own skin. She’s planning another for next year, exploring the experience of women in music.

“I want to get their stories out there. Everyone talks about ‘this’ [glamour and showbiz] but no one talks about the other stuff.”

And it doesn’t stop there. Mica has also devoted much of her time to charity work. She’s supported causes ranging from youth homelessness, gender equality and anti-rape campaigns, to music venue renovation projects and the Amy Winehouse Foundation. She’s also worked with the Met Police on anti-gun campaigns, ever since her brother was tragically shot and killed in 2011.

It’s an impressive – and actually pretty humbling – CV. How has she made the crossover into so many other avenues? “People just asked and I said yes! My grandparents were such hard workers, grafters, and I have that too,” reflects Mica. “They were homeowners when no one else we knew owned their own home.

“I think I’ve got that from them – it’s often a mindset of immigrant families, they’re determined to always do better, and have a sort of fear of not working. It’s a working class thing – Michael Caine said that to me once, that he always wants to work, and I was like, ‘But you’re Michael Caine!’ But it’s not about just working all the time, it’s about what that work actually is – it has to inspire you.”

Aptly then, the conversation turns to her forthcoming career plans. Once her current Fame run finishes off in the West End, she then goes into rehearsals for Beauty & The Beast in Catford. What is she looking forward to most about the production, and being back in her old stomping ground?

“Mostly I’m looking forward to seeing people I haven’t seen for 30 years. And I’ve never done pantomime before,” she says. “I thought if I was going to do it I should do it at home. The audience won’t give me a hard time. And it’s always good to go home.”