Havana
Havana is the up and coming Irish bombshell who is taking the UK by storm, she has the full package to turn her into a sensation; she's beautiful, she can sing and dance, and she is a very lovely person.
Female First talks to Havana, and tells us about her duet with Spandeu Ballet frontman Tony Hadley, her new herbal teas and having to turn down a role for a James Bond film!
What is your single about?
It's a single called 'Dance Like That', it's a summer track, We have kind of a rap section at the start of it. From Chaka Demus and Pliers, The rest of the track is just a brilliant all round summer vibe.
The minute you hear it you just think of the summer straight away. It's perfect for this time of the year, We are going to shoot the video in Marbella.
So We've heard you wrote the song.
Yeah I wrote the song myself, I have a producer that did the rest of the album, but this is my own track. A lot of people like it
Have you any other songs that you have been writing?
Yeah I have another couple of tracks. The other stuff has been written by a German producer, and another guy called Pete Hammond, who worked with Kylie Minogue, and they are really really good guys, so I think i'm going to leave it to them for now, so the way they have developed it, it's ended up being a great feel good track.
What is it like working with the producer's?
Everybody I have worked with so far has been very accommodating, just really really nice and made me feel very welcome; obviously when you go into a studio, initially it's kind of hard because you start singing and it's kind of a cold situation, but everyone is very nice.
What was it like working with Tony Hadley, whom you recently did a duet with?
He was absolutely brilliant to work with, it was nerve-wracking to go in and try to re-do that track 'True', it's a difficult one to do because it's such a classic but It was really good.
How does it feel working with all these famous musicians? I had a bit of success in Ireland and I had a couple of hits there, before his tour I supported Westlife for a year and ended up being nominated for an award against them by the end of it.I'v also been on the same bill as Lionel Richie, It's a good CV to have, and a learning curve and learning experience.
How long have you been on the music scene?
I'v been trying to plug the single for about six months.and have spent 6-8 months in London trying to create a new brand and a new sound. Prior to that I'v been singing all my life, i'v been on stage since I was about 3. I was brought up through dance and singing in stage school, and I did a bit of acting and modelling, so I was always in showbizness, so it's kind of a good background to have.
Now it's all different because you just need to be very buisness minded more than anything else.
Speaking of business, I hear you have a few businesses of your own, tell me about them.
I have a lingerie line for women with curves, I'v completely battled against having a JLo bum so for a while I have found that buying swimwear especially and lingerie, It's sometimes harder to find some briefs that give a nicer shape. Sometimes if you go up a size it flatters you more rather than try and squeeze yourself into something, so I want really sizes not just for real women but for curvier women.
Even at size 8 women have thast curvy shape, so I want to make something that also nice to wear which will also keep your stomach in if your going swimming or something.
When is your lingerie wear out?
Well we are actually in production at the moment so we are just toying between the sizes, but what I have been told and directed upon, as I am working with the guy from Agent Proveceur-which is a completely different from the stuff that I am doing, so he's quite in the know about what's selling UK wise, so he's told me that the average UK bust size, has gone up enormously, I don't have that problem unfortuantely, I'm not proportioned out.
But these are issues that we have to address. We are having a board meeting next week about the statistics on what sizes are selling more and things like that.
You also have some sexy tea coming out soon as well.
Thats right, it was an idea that came to me not so long ago, because I live on herbal tea since I started getting healthier and watching what I was eating, Initially herbal teas were a no-no for me but I started out on green tea and now I could die drinking it! So I started mixing teas and that's when the idea of aphrodisiac teas came out and that's my next project so we have to get the flavours right and make sure it's nice to drink.
Do you see yourself more of a musician or a business person?
I think I'm very grateful that I have the oppurtunity to try new things as an entrepeuner and I love coming up with ideas and creating them. But it's good to have things on the side like the lingerie and the tea
So What does the future bring for you?
Well we are going to promote the single in Spain because it has a Latin feel, but we are taking things step by step, and I have a few agencies who are trying to attach another of my songs to brand for an advert, kind of like the songs of the Boots advert 'Here Come The Girls.' It's a girly thing, so hopefully if we take one step at a time we can try to evolve from there and all the other things will fall into place .
Any plans to break America?
Oh yes, hopefully America, and the thing is the song sounds great and it's really American, a lot of producers, whenever I go in the studio, they say 'You sound American' So yeah hopefully America. My family are very supportive luckily;I'm the youngest of nine , so when I was growing up, The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts tried to bring me over when I was nine over here to the UK.
But obviously my parents couldn't do it because how could they uproot such a big family? So I got one word, No. I probably would have been over here a lot sooner, but as I got older we pushed through to three record labels, two of them wanted to sign me and we ended up going to Universal so I came to the UK-but that's a long story short.
Any plans to go into acting?
I would love to do it, I actually got approached in Los Angeles for a part in a bond film, It was only a small role and my character would have been killed off but I still wanted to do it but it was unfortunate as I couldn't get a visa.
So why Latin? Where did that inspiration come from.
Well I loved Gloria Estefan when I was growing up because my sisters used to listen to her, I have a lot of different influences like Prince and Phil Collins, but I just loved her for some reason and I loved the sound 'Rhythm is Going to Get You' and all of those tracks, and that's why I loved that sound more than any of the other pop that was out, and then JLo hit the scenes, that captured everything that I wanted to be, and she just got it right because commercially she was pop and had that R&B sound but she still kept the Latin feel. She was on Fire.
The good thing about Latin is that it's a fun sound and you can't sit down to it, you just want to get up and shake your hips, I love it!
We wish Havana the rest of luck, but we have a feeling that she doesn't need it!
FemaleFirst Danielle Wainwright
Havana is the up and coming Irish bombshell who is taking the UK by storm, she has the full package to turn her into a sensation; she's beautiful, she can sing and dance, and she is a very lovely person.
Female First talks to Havana, and tells us about her duet with Spandeu Ballet frontman Tony Hadley, her new herbal teas and having to turn down a role for a James Bond film!
What is your single about?
It's a single called 'Dance Like That', it's a summer track, We have kind of a rap section at the start of it. From Chaka Demus and Pliers, The rest of the track is just a brilliant all round summer vibe.
The minute you hear it you just think of the summer straight away. It's perfect for this time of the year, We are going to shoot the video in Marbella.
So We've heard you wrote the song.
Yeah I wrote the song myself, I have a producer that did the rest of the album, but this is my own track. A lot of people like it
Have you any other songs that you have been writing?
Yeah I have another couple of tracks. The other stuff has been written by a German producer, and another guy called Pete Hammond, who worked with Kylie Minogue, and they are really really good guys, so I think i'm going to leave it to them for now, so the way they have developed it, it's ended up being a great feel good track.
What is it like working with the producer's?
Everybody I have worked with so far has been very accommodating, just really really nice and made me feel very welcome; obviously when you go into a studio, initially it's kind of hard because you start singing and it's kind of a cold situation, but everyone is very nice.
What was it like working with Tony Hadley, whom you recently did a duet with?
He was absolutely brilliant to work with, it was nerve-wracking to go in and try to re-do that track 'True', it's a difficult one to do because it's such a classic but It was really good.
How does it feel working with all these famous musicians? I had a bit of success in Ireland and I had a couple of hits there, before his tour I supported Westlife for a year and ended up being nominated for an award against them by the end of it.I'v also been on the same bill as Lionel Richie, It's a good CV to have, and a learning curve and learning experience.
How long have you been on the music scene?
I'v been trying to plug the single for about six months.and have spent 6-8 months in London trying to create a new brand and a new sound. Prior to that I'v been singing all my life, i'v been on stage since I was about 3. I was brought up through dance and singing in stage school, and I did a bit of acting and modelling, so I was always in showbizness, so it's kind of a good background to have.
Now it's all different because you just need to be very buisness minded more than anything else.
Speaking of business, I hear you have a few businesses of your own, tell me about them.
I have a lingerie line for women with curves, I'v completely battled against having a JLo bum so for a while I have found that buying swimwear especially and lingerie, It's sometimes harder to find some briefs that give a nicer shape. Sometimes if you go up a size it flatters you more rather than try and squeeze yourself into something, so I want really sizes not just for real women but for curvier women.
Even at size 8 women have thast curvy shape, so I want to make something that also nice to wear which will also keep your stomach in if your going swimming or something.
Tagged in Tony Hadley