Someone once told me that if you respect a person, listen to their opinion. And if you do not respect someone, then do not listen to their opinion. And that works both ways.
The whites come to applaud a Negro performer just like the colored do. When you've got the respect of white and colored, you can ease a lot of things.
I said 'Brian, no one is going to respect me as a mother after this.' He said, 'oh no, yes they will, this is a movie, don't worry about it.' But they're not.
I want to be remembered as somebody that tried to respect her integrity as an artist and as a person. And I don't want to be in any box. I don't want to be one thing.
The direction is going the right way for respect for aboriginal people in North America, and all we can do is stand up and say, 'Please do it faster.'
I respect Georges St. Pierre as a businessman and an athlete. I don't have anything against him personally. But he's not the kind of fighter I like watching.
I think I'm a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it's authority that I respect.
Despite whatever commercial kind of success you might have or radio success, I don't want to do something just to get as many people as possible to listen.
You know, you want everything you do, obviously, to be a success critically and commercially. But what you find out as you go along is that everything won't.
You take all the things that frighten you, and when you can get them to work for you all of sudden people are calling you a success.
Part of my success with urban bachata is reinventing yourself as an artist and continuing to give people different kind of fusions, mixing up the elements and concepts without changing the beat.
With every record I put out, I got a bit more success, a bigger following in cities I would play in, and occasionally a bit of radio play.
Jazz of the sort we play is a happy, extroverted music. You don't have to think about it too much.
All the music that I've made in the past I've believed in. I think some of it has been more commercially successful than others, but it wasn't premeditated.
I didn't try to think what my audience wanted and then make the music accordingly. I made the music and hoped that as many people liked it as possible.
I try to do things that keep me interested. And play music that moves me. I like to move around and play in a lot of different ways.
I never think my music isn't easy until I got to teach it to other people.
The type of music I like to sing is really those classic songs, those Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion, Frank Sinatra, classics.
In other words, the celebrity gets out of hand, and if you're not careful, you will forget what you are about - and that is you are about making music that people want to hear.
I come from an African Caribbean background. I've been influenced by a reggae church music style, contemporary gospel, and rock all fused together.
My parents were quite strict; we couldn't just listen to whatever music we wanted. It was very much like they monitored what we listened to.
