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The day Whitney played footsie with me
Back on TV with an inspiring new show about gospel music, Mica Paris tells of her topsy-turvy life – and an odd encounter with the pop legend
‘My grandad said I would become a harlot’
Suffering, redemption, salvation – no one has experienced these age-old issues like Mica Paris. The soul singer burst onto the scene in 1988 with her debut single My One Temptation and went on to work with the likes of Prince, Boy George and Alexander O’neal. But then her brother was murdered and her career nosedived, before she resurrected herself on TV and radio shows.
She reflects on all this in her new BBC documentary The Gospel According To Mica, which is built around the fascinating history of six gospel classics including Oh Happy Day and Amazing Grace. And it seems fitting that it should air just as lockdown lifts, because these are songs everyone can relate to. ‘It’s produced by Lenny Henry’s company,’ says Mica when we meet via mutual friends just before lockdown. She’s cooked amazing Jamaican chicken with rice and peas, as you might expect from a Celebrity Masterchef semi-finalist. ‘I wanted to do two shows, one about gospel music and the other about all the female singers – Ella Fitzgerald, Janis Joplin, Whitney Houston – who have been tortured in the business,’ she says. ‘The BBC wanted the gospel one first because it’s my heritage.’
The programme opens with rapper Stormzy performing his moving hymn Blinded By Your Grace Pt 2 at Glastonbury last year, and at one point Mica visits a house in Memphis which was a haven for slaves seeking freedom. The footage is accompanied by Go Down Moses, and when the screen goes black you can feel the darkness they lived in. Mica also revisits her childhood church in Lewisham, south London, where she and her two elder sisters and three younger brothers were brought up by strict Pentecostal grandparents, to explore the origins of these songs and the complexities behind the words.
‘Church was a community for me,’ she says. ‘It was a social event. As a kid I had a party trick. I’d hold a note and the room would go, “Oohh”. I felt like Bill Withers singing that long note on Lovely Day. I’m one of six children and I desperately wanted to be noticed, so I did what I had to do.’
It’s normal in Caribbean families for the children to be looked after by the grandparents, but Mica and her siblings saw their parents all the time. ‘My grandparents were lovely but super-strict,’ she says. ‘As my grandfather was a pastor, we were the first family of the church. My Sunday clothes couldn’t be touched all week, and the girls would wear a beret to cover our heads for church.
‘Everyone looked to our family for leadership, so they all came to our house. There was choir practice, a Monday prayer meeting, a Tuesday Bible study... going out wasn’t an option. It didn’t even feel weird.
‘My parents would visit us all the time. They were total 60s kids, all about the party, so imagine the contrast with the Pentecostal upbringing. When I visited my parents’ house at weekends it was goat curries and dub reggae music with people walking in and out. I actually preferred the quiet of my grandparents’ house.
‘But when I got to 15 I suddenly wanted to go out with my friends.
And I did, but my grandmother followed me. There was this dark figure darting around the street, watching me. But I don’t think she was controlling, just protective. And I’m thankful they were like that because a lot of my friends ended up really messed up. Going into the music business actually helped me. I moved out aged 16 and signed my first deal at 17.’
Mica was studying art at college when she moved in with her sister in Brixton. ‘My grandparents had a meltdown and said, “You’ve got to come back home.” It was horrible. My grandad said, “You’re going to become a harlot.” I had to look up what it meant. But I told him I’d had 15 years of Jesus and was prepared.’
She can still quote the Bible with passion – she might have left Jesus, but Jesus never really left her. ‘No, it never does leave,’ she says. ‘It got me
through the pitfalls in my career. One minute you’re loved and everyone wants you, and the next minute you’re gone. I’ve had many peaks and lows.’
The peaks included her platinumselling debut album So Good, and when she covered U2’s song One, Bono wrote to tell her how much he loved it. She took over from Trinny and Susannah for two seasons of What Not To Wear, and had a Radio 2 show called Mica Meets... as well as parts in West End musicals such as Fame. But in 2001 her brother was shot dead after his girlfriend rejected his killer’s advances, while her recording career has suffered quite a few setbacks. ‘There have been many lows,’ she says. ‘My faith in God got me through them. I don’t go to church now, but I pray in the morning and evening. My faith is unshakeable. I believe there’s something bigger than us, I’ve seen it work in my life.
‘Just yesterday I was speaking to Chaka Khan, who is one of my oldest friends and godmother to my eldest child Monet. I remember when I lost a music deal in 1995 I got a phone call from Chaka, who was in London doing a play called Mama, I Want To Sing!. She said, “I hate it, the only way I can get out of this play is if you take it.” I had no money, then I got the play – that’s God. It shows you how, in this business, you have to have faith. Everyone had written me off, saying I’d had my moment, and then I had a resurgence.’
Her career has given her many brushes with greatness, not least a strange encounter with Whitney Houston. ‘I’d just had my first hit and
I went to do the German Top Of The Pops,’ recalls Mica. ‘All of a sudden a big stretch limo turns up – you’ve never seen a limo as long as this, it took up the whole street! Six bodyguards walk out, and then Whitney.
‘She sang I Wanna Dance With Somebody. She was shy and awkward. We had dinner afterwards and at the table she started playing footsie with me. I think she was really into me but I had come from the church and I was like, “What? I don’t get it. I’m from south London, we don’t do that.” I was 18, and although I loved her I was freaking out. Forget the pictures, in real life she was mesmerising, and I’m not even gay.’
Her new documentary feels all the more poignant in a world where there are so many Black Lives Matter protests. ‘I don’t understand racism,’ she says. ‘I’ve been told by my own people that I’m “not black enough” because my children are mixed-race. People told Whitney she was “too white” and so she made Your Love Is My Love, because she was trying to be black.’
She’s emotional now, but composes herself. In an industry that can be sexist, racist and ageist, Mica Paris is coming into her own again, inspired in part by her cousin, the boxer Chris Eubank. ‘He’s always told me the British write you off when you get to a certain age, but if you’re passionate and want to be relevant then you still can b]e.’
‘Everyone had written me off but I came back’