Fortune smiles again on a Trini Songbird

Singer and model Charisse Lee Quai’s life story could easily be mistaken for one of those feel-good Lifetime specials that leave you in tears one moment and cheering the next.  At just 32, she has gone from sharing a stage in London with Maxi Priest, Whitney Houston and Madonna to weeping in despair in a New York homeless shelter.  From escaping an abusive marriage that almost killed her to getting ready to represent T&T on the wildly popular X Factor talent scouting programme. At 17, fresh out of Providence Girls’, she moved to London to pursue her music career, and footed the bills by modelling for stores like House of Fraser and Fashion Fair.   She soon began performing with acts like Soul to Soul and did background vocals for Warner Brothers. Not only could she sing, but she proved to be a quick, excellent writer.  “If I liked a beat, I could just write and write.”  Sound engineers and musicians appreciated her gift, but many took advantage of her lack of business savvy, using her music without giving her either credit or payment.  “I didn’t know about copyright infringement at that time. I only wanted to sing.” She lucked out, performing at a VIP members-only club called 10 Room, where she found herself onstage supporting some of the greatest names in the music industry.  It was a celebrity Russian Roulette.  “On Tuesdays, you would perform with whichever feature artist they had that night.”  The gig made her career.  “Whenever I sang, people listened.  It was humbling.”  She knew then that music was her future.

 

Fast forward a few years, and Lee Quai is living in the US, with a son from a previous relationship and a daughter from her marriage.  That marriage turned out to be made in Hell.  She was forced to endure such great violence that she sent her son back to London to live with his father for his own protection.  Her darkest day came when she was almost beaten to death in the presence of her daughter.  “She was so young: she’ll never forget.” She picked herself up, escaped the marriage, and was once again working and singing.  By then, she had another daughter.  But a second blow soon came her way with the economic crash.  She was jobless, penniless, and had no place to go.  “I’m standing on a street corner with snowflakes on my head, with a one-year-old baby on my hip, holding her sister’s hand, and I am homeless.”  Tears spill as the awful memory burns. Her only refuge was a homeless shelter that smelled “like a brothel”.  She bleached “from the marish to the parish”, spread out her jacket for her daughters to sleep on, and sat in the cold room with her Bible in her hands and sobbed.   “It was like a prison,” she recalls.  She remembers trying to find Christmas presents for her daughters in the 99 cents store, having nothing else to give them.  

 

People marvelled at her beauty, saying, “You’re so pretty; you could have anything you want."  And I’d say, “Pretty?  Pretty never saved me from being abused, from being used.  Pretty serves no purpose.”  While the women in the shelter watched her children, she worked and saved money.  “I worked and worked and worked and worked.  I moved my daughters into a beautiful apartment. I promised my children they will never be hurt.  God never failed me, and I will never fail them.” Now, Lee Quai is making sure to pay for all the blessings that have fallen upon her.  She volunteers at Faith Horizons, a shelter for battered and abused women, which once helped her, and Missing Solace, a support group in Trinidad for women who have given birth to stillborn babies.  She’s also founding a charity of her own, called Cocha Love, to serve battered and abused families.  “If I could help somebody else in my situation, that’s what I want to do.” Once again poised at the top of her world, she knows in her heart she will be the best performer and mother she can.  “It’s my natural ability to sing.  I know I’m supposed to do something great with it; it’s something I HAVE to do.  Being a parent is also something I HAVE to do.  How do I find the balance?  I pray and ask God to give me the strength.” God is certainly guiding her career in the right way.  Later this year, Lee Quai will be taking part in the reality show, X Factor, and working on her new album.  “There are obstacles, but God’s time is the best.  God promised me something, and I’m going to get it. I cannot fail.”