STRUGGLE FROM SQUARE ONE: An exlcusive with Alison Hinds

By Renice Bostic for Island Spotlight Magazine 

(March 2012)

Photo from Alison's album Caribbean Queen

STRIKING beauty, exquisite form and strong self confidence are the images one is greeted with when Alison Hinds steps on the stage decked out in one of her diva outfits. It is an image which after 20 years on the stage has remained immaculate. An image many are envious of. As I sit in the company of this Barbadian Soca artiste, I admire her natural beauty which is revealed through her warm personality and physical appearance. I am stunned when she tells me she has struggled with her self esteem. I am in sheer disbelief.

Alison performing during Crop Over 2012 at BRC

“I started to feel like I wasn’t good enough.”

When a famous and talented artiste makes statements like these, you want to roll your eyes. When Alison Hinds, the Caribbean Soca queen says it, you possibly will look at her in scrutiny waiting for her to laugh and say something like ‘Happy April Fool’s Day!’ like I did. But she doesn’t.

It is a rainy morning in March and I feel slightly overdressed as Alison emerges bundled in a thick robe without any make up. Becoming comfortable, we discuss our various carnival experiences in Trinidad. Her smile broadens and her eyes light up. It is evident she is involved in an industry she is deeply passionate about, and for her sake I am grateful she wasn’t forced into accounting or banking.

“I had a racist teacher in England who used to pick on me and the 2 other black kids each time we had math class and the experience made me hate math...seriously!”

Like many others Alison Hinds has had to deal with her share of challenges. However the root of her issues is slightly different from the average person. It is as a result of her musical career and rise to stardom. Her challenge began when she made the transition with her former band Square One from the hotel circuit to the club circuit during the 1980s. Without anyone to guide her at the time, her lack of fashion knowledge lead to her performing in whatever she felt to.

“It was really me wearing whatever I felt was fashionable, but it really wasn’t stylish at all looking back at it. It was flat shoes all the way. Heels were a big no in those times!”

Alison being interviewed by ReNice 2012

Somewhere along the way, Alison discovered leggings in every colour and pattern so she proudly boasts that she “was wearing leggings long before there were all the Heels and Leggings fetes” which are now occurring in Barbados. She boasts in her strong Bajan accent, while bellowing out her vibrant laugh. I breathe a sigh of relief that I didn’t have on my leggings for Alison to laugh at my “now-come-to-shore” fashion. Leggings though were the beginning of her issue with self esteem.

“People began having a problem with what I was wearing. I was always wearing leggings at the time because you could see my shape well and I was in my 20s which is an age you want to show off your body. They were saying all kinds of negative stuff about how I looked and how I was dressing. I heard all kinds of weird things about myself and they even went as far as to call me a drug addict. All these insults were coming from people I didn’t know and who didn’t know me.”

Alison is indeed a household name over twenty years later which means she didn’t give up when people were clearly fighting her down. Her mother is credited as the person who kept her focused when she   was feeling depressed and badly about herself. This is why Alison believes communication is the key to overcoming as it allows you to get emotions off of your chest and creates a good support system.

“I remember feeling so so so bad about myself and asking ‘why me?’ I couldn’t understand”  

“I couldn’t understand why these people who knew nothing about me had such negative things to say. I thought I had a problem. Then I spoke to my mom and she helped me to understand that people will always say things about you and try to rain on your parade. You have to take it and move on.”

So Alison made a conscious decision not to let what people say influence the way she felt about her self. Constantly telling her self to keep going and ignore others, she went back to the stage to build a career doing what she loved to do; singing, performing and entertaining people.

Those who had negative things to say in the past would probably be upset today as Alison still prances around in some of the hottest outfits in addition to heels. She’s no longer in her 20s but she’s still showing her shape, which has become even more curvaceous after the birth of her daughter, Saharan. I guess those people will have to accept her because the show is definitely going on in 4 inch heels! How she is able to perform in those heels and ‘wuk up’ like only she can baffles me since she readily admits that she is not very athletic; she’ll sprain her ankle by just walking!

Though she wears sexy outfits on stage, she is aware of the impact her fashion choices have made on the entertainment industry, especially for women.

“In a lot of my earlier years I used to wear hot outfits.”

(Photo from Web- 2011)

I point out that she still does and after being overtaken by laughter, she finally agrees with me. “I guess in a way I set the precedence in terms of how female artistes look and a lot of them try to emulate that mix of being strong and being sexy.”

It is a hard balance between sensuality on stage and still getting people to recognize the artiste for their talent and not necessarily for how they look. Women in entertainment face many challenges which men do not even have to think about. When the female’s on stage persona is rejected or even her talent is downplayed and she becomes objectified, her self esteem often takes a heavy blow.

“A difficult task is to get people to see past how you look as an artiste and see that you have a brain that is functioning and you didn’t just become a singer because you failed in school.”

Be confident in your own skin, and in what you wear. People will learn to accept you for who you are once you do it yourself. Anyone who knows Alison knows that she is a strong advocate for female empowerment. It is evident in the music she sings such as her hit, Roll and even now in her recently launched foundation for female empowerment called The Alison Hinds Wonderland Foundation.

“One of my favourite aspects about being an entertainer definitely has to be the joy I see on the faces of my fans, young and old, when they hear their favourite songs from me. When they email, tweet, message or just come up to me and give me that positive feedback it just encourages me to keep going.”

And that is what it is all about. In the midst of your troubles, you have to keep going. Even when “the iron have you so bazodee, you just keep going!”