Patti Boulaye
With an autobiography just out, singer Patti Boulaye chats to Yours about faith, family and what counts
No need to ask glamorous singer Patti Boulaye to nominate the greatest influence in her life. Her mum, Arit. “She instilled such faith in me and my eight brothers and sisters. She died in 1999 but I still talk to her in my head every day and thank her. She and my dad had a very acrimonious divorce and then she raised all her children singlehandedly. She always called Jesus her friend. If ever I told her I loved her, she’d say, ‘And I love you, too. But Jesus loves you more’.” Like mother, like daughter. “When my daughter, Aret, was growing up, I banned television so she could really concentrate on her studies. I’m a typical African mother; strict but loving. She learnt to speed-read. When she read Law at Westminster University, she got the top marks in the whole of the UK in her second year. She’s also a singer – she appeared on The Voice in 2013 – and is the mother of Dante, my threeyear-old grandson.” Patti continues: “When my daughter was 11, a teacher asked her to draw an animal that best represented her mother. So she drew a panther. When the teacher asked her why, Aret said: ‘Well, my mother is black and she’s beautiful but if you were to touch her young, she’d kill.’ ” Now, Patti has written her autobiography, The Faith of a Child, telling her
remarkable story that started when she was born in a taxi on the way to hospital in a Nigerian town. As a teenager, she survived the Biafran civil war in Nigeria before arriving in the UK aged 16 and rising to stardom as an international singer, West End musical star and actress. The big break that transformed her life came via the Seventies and Eighties TV talent series, New Faces. With judges including Mickie Most and Tony Hatch the show helped launch the careers of numerous stars including the late Marti Caine and comedian Lenny Henry. But in 1978 it was Patti who took to the New Faces stage, becoming the first person to score maximum points from all the judges. Patti recalls: “I’d just lost my brother Tony, a pilot, in a plane crash aged 33. It was the first time I was really angry with God. My agent said I should enter the competition to take my mind off my grief. And it changed my career completely. When I came back from the funeral in Nigeria, there were photographers waiting for me at Heathrow. Suddenly, I was public property.” In the years since, Patti has released nine albums and 25 singles and had her own TV show. Most recently she has embarked on a tour with her one-woman show exploring the songbook of the late Billie Holiday. And she was in the public eye last year in the BBC documentary series, The Real Marigold Hotel, in which eight senior celebrities travelled to India to see how they’d fare. “I said yes to the show because I was interested in India’s spirituality and the respect they have for their elderly. If I could wave a magic wand, that’s something I’d have brought back from there to the UK. In India and Africa people realise the elderly have seen and done so much, that they’re full of wisdom. In Britain, it feels almost as though the elderly are discarded.” But after the show she turned down the offer to repeat the exercise in Florida and Japan. Why? “It felt to me that it was a reality show, which wasn’t what I wanted to do, I believe entertainment is a public service and that should be respected.” In January last year she was awarded an OBE for her tireless charity work in the UK and sub-Saharan Africa, a fitting tribute for a woman who had to overcome many hurdles.
Patti’s autobiography, The Faith of a Child is published by lulu.com. For more details and latest tour updates visit www.pattiboulaye.com
‘In India and Africa people realise the elderly have seen and done so much, that they’re full of wisdom’