Did you see the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics? If you did, and you’re a longtime Afrobella reader, you may have instantly recognize Canadian opera singer and former Afrobella of the Week, Measha Bruggersgosman.

I interviewed Measha back in 2007 when she was touring with the Cleveland Orchestra. It was such a pleasure to see her on NBC, singing before an audience of 3.2 BILLION people!!

In case you missed her performance, click here to see the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics, and to hear Measha’s Olympic hymn. Her hair, her makeup, her dress — all looked AMAZING. Click here to visit her official website, and click here to read my interview from 2007!

Measha, you continue to make Afrobellas everywhere very proud! Keep shining!

In the music industry today, finding artists who truly understand the importance and effect of their image is rare. Even moreso when it comes to females. It can seem like socially conscious musicians like Queen Latifah, Lauryn Hill, Tanya Stephens, and India Arie are anomalies of the industry. Compare their success to the stars who get the magazine cover shine today. Sometimes when I listen to the radio or watch music videos on TV, I’m filled with an overwhelming feeling of despair and unbelonging.

See, I’m a bella who’s constantly seeking music that uplifts, enlightens, and informs. So when Queen Ifrica came on the scene, I sat up and took notice.

I clearly remember the first time I heard her voice — at first I thought she was a dude, simply because her intonation in the chorus of Daddy is so deep. The lyrical content is so heavy. In case you’ve never heard Daddy, click here to experience it. Be forewarned – it’s not every day a song about incest becomes a hit reggae song.

Tackling heavy subject matter head on is what Queen Ifrica does. Name another female artist who’s addressed a topic as controversial as skin bleaching in the Caribbean — a chronic problem as revealed here.

“My complexion is better than ever!”

I love her spirit and her sentiment.

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My question is, is there anything Amanda Diva can’t do?

She can rap. She can sing. She can spit a mean spoken word verse. She’s a blogger and a cable television personality, and an internet television personality and an artist. She’s a hip hop diva with Caribbean roots who isn’t afraid to blaze her own trail.

To say she’s bold and ambitious is an understatement. She’s exactly the kind of role model I’m looking to in my own time of transition.

All this and more makes her a perfect Afrobella of the Month for these ever-changing times.

I interviewed Amanda forever ago, in like mid-2008. But I saved a stash of awesome interviews for the time when I could bring them to life in a fuller fashion.

Thanks to the incredible skill of my video editor Gisele Parson, we’re finally able to make that happen.

Bellas, I present to you the tour-de-force that is Amanda Diva.

I know I’m biased, but I need to shout about it — I love what Gisele is doing with the images! Please show her some love if you feel the same. And my next task is to work on getting better quality audio for my interviews. Apologies for the volume level and clarity there.

For those of you at work who can’t peep the video, we chat about the cookie cutter image of women in hip hop, being asked to alter your image in the music industry, and defining yourself when you do so many things so well.

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One of my resolutions for 2009 is to take Afrobella to the next level.

I started hot and heavy in 2006, but I found myself becoming overwhelmed, which resulted in a feeling of inability. I had a vision of a YouTube Channel where I could upload concert videos, beauty tips, and especially, especially awesome interviews with celebrity bellas who inspire me through their style, their music, their hair, and their personalities. Like my Esperanza Spalding interview, but better. Seriously, that one YouTube clip took me forever to complete, and I still see SO much room for improvement. So anyway, I kept getting these opportunities to interview people, and I didn’t know what to do with them, and…you get the picture.

I had a project in mind, but I knew I couldn’t undertake it alone. So I put out a Help Wanted blog post back in November, and that, bellas, is how I discovered Gisele Parson, a video editor and motion graphics designer in NYC who reached out and wanted to bring my vision to life. Check out her demo reel and her portfolio page, and you’ll see why I went with her. Gisele is crazy talented! And I knew with talent like hers, she could help to realize my dreams. I am so happy to be working with Gisele!

I am honored and thrilled to kick off the new year by bringing back the Afrobella of the Month series, by honoring a previously celebrated bella. I’m talking about the lovely and talented Miss Janelle Monae!

To me, Janelle is one of the ultimate symbols of what Afrobella is all about. She loves her all-natural pompadour, she is unafraid to speak her mind or express her personal style, and she most certainly marches to her own funky beat. Fiercely creative, bold, and beautiful. You can either get with Miss Monae, or make way for her. I interviewed her right around my second anniversary, and finally, finally I can share that interview with you all!

We chatted for over 40 minutes, and with Gisele’s editorial eye, we whittled the interview down to three video clips. In part one, we got the hair questions out of the way. Everything Janelle does, she does with purpose — her hair is an important part of who she is.

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Rihanna is fly. Rihanna is beautiful. Rihanna is becoming quite sexy. I say becoming, because compared to Alison Hinds, the reigning queen of soca, Rihanna is still not yet a woman (despite her newly acquired penchant for voguing in fetish gear). Alison Hinds has that grown and sexy thing down pat, and she’s been one of the Caribbean’s most popular entertainers for over a decade now. She was the pride of Barbados back when Rih Rih was singing Hero in school. In case you’ve never heard of her before, allow me to introduce you to the amazing Alison Hinds.

Born in England, she moved to Barbados at age 11. From then, she was steeped in soca. According to Wikipedia, she joined the band Square One in 1986, and played just about every hot club and fete in Barbados and the Caribbean islands en route to fame and fortune — dropping hits like One For the Road in 1992. Square One’s star was rising in Barbados, but not throughout the island archipelago just yet. In Trinidad, the first I heard of Alison Hinds was with her monster hit, Raggamuffin, in 1996. That song won Alison Hinds her first road march victory at Crop Over — the first time a woman had won the honor in Barbados. Raggamuffin was a certified hit throughout the islands, and ushered in what Trinis referred to as “The Bajan Invasion.” After that, everyone waited with anticipation to hear what Alison and Square One was about to drop next. Her commanding voice became like a rally cry for the party to kick into high gear. She singlehandedly changed the face of soca and paved the way for the younger generation of female frontwomen to come. As she says in this feature in Vibe magazine — “Several female soca artists have told me, “You inspired me so I could do this too.” I feel like I’ve had a huge impact on young Caribbean women.” She really has. Her combination of strength and sexuality has become a blueprint for the genre. Every up-and-coming soca starlet dreams of being Alison.

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Najwa Moses is striking. Najwa Moses is bold. Najwa Moses lives her life full speed ahead. She’s working hard towards making herself a brand, and from the interview we had a week or so ago, I’m convinced she knows what she’s doing.

She’s a podcaster, a videopodcaster, a writer, a fashionista, a marketing maven, a self promoter, a fashion do, and an unabashed fashion don’t all at the same time. And in this era of changing media, she’s one of my new heroines. I caught up with her in a fun phone interview recently, and we chatted about anything and everything.

One of Najwa’s first roles in fashion was doing business development for a not-for-profit organization through the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce. “My job was to help promote the work of local designers, helping them get to trade shows, helping them do numbers, PR, whatever whatever. One of the first things I created was called a shopping party. All these shopping parties — Shecky’s, Gen Art, all of them were quote-unquote “inspired” by the concept I came up with,” she declared proudly.

“Wow,” I interjected.

“I know, right! I don’t get credit for that? When you’re 20 years old or 21 years old and you don’t have a big company with lots of money behind you… when you put something out that’s a novelty idea, you’re really leaving it out there for other people to pick up. And that’s unfortunate. But I’ve learned, and you know what, they can’t take creativity away.”

That pick yourself up, dust yourself off attitude has taken her from strength to strength. Najwa’s shopping party was called The Closet, and it involved a lot of indie designers who weren’t aware of their potential. She started the event in 2001, and she learned as she went along. “I understand how things work a little bit better now.”

The last time they held the event was in 2005. At the time, she was also writing for NPR, covering New York Fashion Week, and immersing herself in the culture of style. Still, she found herself yearning to do her own thing. “That’s when I learned about podcasting. It was like — you want your own radio show? Come learn about podcasting. I was like, hell yeah! Jumped into it, did a bunch of great audio interviews, got a brand new website and I was like, oh no, this website must have video. I lost my mind, forgetting how expensive video is,” she laughs. Her website is Styleaholics, and it’s as fabulous as you would expect.

Najwa’s got a lot of personality, and she talks at the speed of traffic in New York City. For example, she had me cracking up when I listened to this Showbuzz podcast, where she recounts visiting Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Pioneering forms of new media doesn’t come cheap, but Najwa’s trying to be savvy about it. Now she has her own YouTube channel, where she features her videopodcast “The In List.” She’s interviewed fashion icons and fabulous celebrities including Diane Von Furstenberg, Kelis, and Marc Ecko (I don’t know what it is, but I find him completely fascinating). She’s starting to make some commercial inroads, too — check her out pimping the Toyota Camry at one of her fashion events. It’s all part of her brand-building master plan.

“I cross many worlds. I don’t just stick with the black fashionista world, or the fashionista world. I am also into the music scene, the food scene, very international high end stuff, or very underground scenes. I think I represent many different types of people and subcultures.” No kidding. In addition to the podcasts, videos, and writing for sites like AOL’s Styleist and Bluefly, Najwa is also the ambassador for Ugly Talent NY, a character model agency started in 1969 that exclusively traffics in “interesting” faces. Multicultural? Old? Tatted up? Obese? Or generally unusual? Ugly NY is looking for you. “The models range from a 300lb Sumo wrestler to a Styleaholic like myself-and I’ve personally have never been happier to be UGLY,” says Najwa.

Which brings me to another defining trait of Najwa’s. Her style. I had to ask her what’s up with that defining look. “My style is just really eclectic. I’m always a little left of fashion, and at the same time, I have to pay attention to that and understand that not everyone will look at me and say oh my God, that’s brilliant. For me, it’s about creating a statement and making sure everyone is noticing me. Because you want to make sure when you walk into an event, all eyes are on you. And in New York City, there’s a lot of people for eyes to be on.”

Believe it or not, being a plus size chick who dresses flamboyantly is working for her. “I’m not a size two. People well say oh my God, is that a detraction? But you know what, it actually helps me. Because it’s like, who is that curvy girl with those big ass boobs and that big ass hair coming in here? You can’t help but notice me. And I’m confident. And I believe in the designers I’m wearing, so it is what it is. Even this year, I’m like, how can I go crazier?”

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