Q-1: After the success of "Pon De Replay" last year, "SOS (Rescue Me)" shot up the charts to No. 1 as soon as it was released. How does it feel to go from being virtually unknown to having this type of success in less than a year?
It is crazy because I see everything happening but none of it's really hitting me. I don't... like, can it get better? It's so weird because everybody calls me, "Your song is number one," and I'm like, "Thank you!" But I'm still in shock, I still haven't, like, really freaked out and thought, "Oh my gosh, my song is number one." I'm still trying to make myself freak out. If you have the number one song in the country, you should be smiling every second.
Q-2: Your story almost seems like a fairytale: You were discovered in Barbados by a music producer; you were flown to New York to meet Jay-Z; he signed you to Def Jam. Is it really a fairytale story or is there more to it that we don't know?
It's really like a fairytale story. It had a lot of work put into it, but the signing was done in a day. Like, I couldn't ask for more.
Q-3: You released your second album only eight months after the first one. What made you decide to release it so quickly?
It basically felt like it was time, y'know? I was... my first album, I was thrown out there, and I mean, I was just a little girl coming from Barbados into a big city and a big country, and doing all this promotion and it never stopped, I had to learn to fix a lot of stuff myself, but I feel like I've grown five years in just a year, and I really want to show people that. And Music of the Sun was more like my introduction to the world: "Hey, I'm the girl from the Caribbean." This second album, this is a big step up from the first one. A Girl like Me, it's really... it's this girl from the Caribbean; what's it like to be a girl like me? And I think if you do that, I show people that by speaking of different real things, of different topics of my life.
Q-4: You've said that coming from Barbados, you hadn't heard much rock music before. What type of music did you grow up with and how did that influence your style?
I listened to a lot of reggae music, which has influenced my music highly. Um, I love R&B artists, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, um, hip-hop music... Kanye West... that has all influenced my music. I try to fuse songs together... and now I'm using newer songs... like rock music... they don't play all records in Barbados unless it's reggae, so I didn't really know about "Tainted Love" [which she samples in "SOS"] a lot, I'd heard it a few times, I didn't know about Soft Cell or any of those older artists, until I moved to America, y'know, and I put that in my music, I fused that with pop and R&B and made a new song. That's art, yeah, I like to be creative.
Q-5: You've also said that touring with Gwen Stefani last year to promote your first album introduced you to rock and changed your perspective. Would you say that A Girl Like Me has more of a rock influence than your first album?
The second album doesn't even have a lot of influence of rock at all. There's one song on it that I did that I mashed up rock and reggae together, and yeah, I just wanted to create something, y'know, be creative, and the song "Kisses Don't Lie," the rock-and-reggae-song, was written and recorded in Barbados.
Q-6: Besides Gwen Stefani, you've worked with other big names like Sean Paul. Are there other artists that you'd really like to work with in the future?
Um yeah, I would love to work with Chris Brown.
Q-7: And "SOS" is being used in a Nike music video that you appear in. You seem to be getting quite a few endorsement deals these days. Are there any more of those in the works?
Well, there's some in the works, but I can't really say because nothing is confirmed yet, but uh, yeah. That's a great thing too, because it's good to have your face all over the place, y'know, Nike's a big brand, I love Nike, and for them to have me endorse their brand -- that's a big deal for me.
Q-8: Yeah it's pretty rare to have someone who started just a year ago...
Exactly, and an artist, 'cause I mean, history with Nike, I'm actually their first artist to endorse the brand, 'cause they always have athletes. And that surprised me when they asked me, I was like, "What?! You want me?" It's fun, I really enjoy working with them, they're great people.
Q-9: You're also appearing in Bring It On Yet Again. Is acting something you've always wanted to do or did it just kind of happen?
Bring It On isn't really you have to act, it's just a small little cameo where I play myself and they hold a cheerleading competition, but um, then there are other movies I really want to get into, like I wanna get into action, kinda adventure, I think that that's so incredible, drama, yeah, that'd be fun.
Q-10: How are you dealing with all the male attention you're surely getting now?
Oh it's great, they're really supportive of my career, they're really supportive of my music, and I love that. Y'know, usually the ladies, the ladies are always supportive, but it's good to have guy friends, especially me, I love having friends, guys, y'know, 'cause all my friends are guys. For some reason, I don't get along really well with girls. I have three girlfriends and a million guy friends. So it's always good knowing I can have those guys back me up and back up my career.
Q-11: So are you involved with anyone right now?
No. I'm not involved, I'm not dating.
Q-12: How do you keep a balance between work and your personal life since you're so busy?
Oh, it's crazy 'cause no matter what I do, well first of all, there's no balance, it's 99% to 1%, 99% being my career, there's 1% of my life which is personal, uh, and even in that 1%, my career always seems to find its way in there somewhere. Whether I'm just on the phone, whether I'm listening to music, of course, music is my career, but I'm shopping, I'm always looking for something to go onstage with, y'know? But it's great, that's how passionate I am about what I do.
Q-13: What projects are in store for you in the near future?
Well, right now, we're working on getting on two tours this summer, both domestic and European. We'll definitely be on tour, but we're just trying to figure out who we want to go on tour with, whether I want to have my own tour. Still working on it, but you definitely look out for that, look out for me on tour this summer.
