By: Staff Writer
July 9, 2021
A Dominica singer/song writer says that she was a shoo-in for a musical career having being “born into music” and it brings her joy to perform and write songs.
Michele Henderson, a singer/songwriter from Dominica, told Caribbean Magazine Plus that while she is good at song writing, she still enjoys the live stage performances and the “adrenaline rush” of a live performance always makes her feel good.
She also said: “I’m a multi-genre artist and known for traditional Cadence-lypso music in Dominica as well as I do a lot of jazz and R&B. I have done jazz festivals around the world. I like what I do and don’t want to be boxed in.”
Michele has travelled the Americas, Europe and Asia singing her way along the journey while developing her song writing talents because she wants to “help other artists.”
She said: “People know me more as a performer than a writer. So now, I’m thinking of doing more writing for other people, so that I can get my works out there through more channels.”
While “loving” to perform on stage, “I get the greatest thrill when I write. It brings me the most joy to create something and watch it come from nothing into something that people enjoy. That really brings me a lot of joy,” Michele also said.
There is a lot of fruit on Michele’s tree as she has a very deep, rooted background in music having being a third generation artist. Having the skills, training and know-how passed down by generations, she knows exactly what the crowd wants and when they want it.
Born in Dominica, Michele explained that: “My family is a musical family. I was basically born into music. My dad was a musician, my uncles were musicians, cousins and everybody around me is involved in the Creative Industries. So it was I was a shoo-in for music.”
Michele has not been travelling much because of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, but she remains in Dominica honing her craft and making music anyway because it is what she knows and loves to do.
She added: “I played classical flute for a while and I’m trained in the classical flute, but then I wanted to explore more modern styles of music.
“I started writing poetry when I was very young as well so song writing came easily. I first started writing songs and then participated in local competitions, here in Dominica and then got some regional recognition in the neighbouring islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe for my music and joined a band when I was 15 years old. It just it snowballed from there.”
Caribbean Magazine Plus asked Michele why has there no COVID-19 calypso or soca songs coming out in general around the region? She told us, “People don’t want to celebrate COVID-19 they would like it to be a long lost memory. I think that’s it, people don’t really want to have to remember COVID-19. It’s like a stain on our lives and our careers and so I think people have not been inspired.”
Admitting that when she was stuck in the US when the COVID-19 pandemic first struck that she did write a song with her sister and nieces called “quarantine” that she put our on her YouTube calling it only an “experiment” for the moment because they were bored being stuck in the house. “Each one of them gave me a line and I structured a melody put it together,” Michele said.