Sometimes you come away from an interview in absolute awe. I'm not talking about star-power awe. I'm talking about "wow-how-does-that-person-do-it" awe. So it was after spending a morning with Queen Cee.
Two weeks ago, the 30-year-old singer-actress won the Hamilton Music Award for top R&B/soul album of the year. It wasn't an easy victory. She had to beat out John Ellison, the veteran Dundas soulman who wrote the megahit Some Kind of Wonderful.
Queen Cee's win was impressive enough, but that wasn't what inspired the awe. It was the fact that she was able to record such a fine album, Space And Time, while juggling the demands of four young children and a theatre career.
Queen Cee is the stage name of Charmaine Robinson, a graduate of Sherwood Secondary School and mother to three sons -- Origin, 8, Nifaiya, 6, and Ezekia, 5 -- and a daughter, 18-month-old Amora.
When she arrived at The Spectator for an interview and photo shoot, Robinson was accompanied by her husband, Leon, her youngest son Ezekia and toddler Amora, who slept in the arms of her Aunt Nattasha, the singer's younger sister. The children were perfectly behaved, never crying, never complaining.
Robinson has two great loves -- her family and her music. Sometimes her two loves come together. Leon, for example, produced her record. He also did all the artwork on the cover.
"I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have the husband that I have," Robinson says. "I'm blessed because he's an artist, too, and he understands."
Sometimes her two loves clash. Like when she was offered the lead female role in the Toronto Winter Garden production of The Lion King.
Robinson won the part in an open audition, with no theatrical training -- a rarity in a big-money production such as The Lion King.
Unfortunately, it was about that time Robinson discovered she was pregnant with Ezekia. She gave the role away.
Last year, opportunity knocked again when she was offered the lead in Theatre Aquarius' production of Dreamgirls. A big decision had to be made. She had just given birth to Amora and Dreamgirls was slated for a month-long run in Winnipeg.
She took the role on her husband's urging.
Queen Cee went to Winnipeg, while Leon held the fort at home with the children.
"It gave me time to bond with my new daughter," Leon smiles.
Robinson remains determined to push ahead with her musical career, get Space And Time some well-deserved radio play. She enjoyed her work in the theatre and would like to see more. But she's also willing to take any reasonable singing role that comes her way -- jingles, club dates, anything to increase her exposure.
Queen Cee will be performing with her band Saturday in Hamilton at the Casbah.
Some Hamilton-area musicians are doing well on the concert stage. Luke Doucet, who moved here earlier this year with his Burlington-born wife and band member, Melissa McClelland, is touring this month across Canada as the opening act for English popster James Blunt.
The tour hits the Air Canada Centre tonight in Toronto. Doucet's latest CD, Blood's Too Rich, wasn't able to beat Kathleen Edwards for Adult Alternative record of the year at the Hamilton Music Awards, but it won for best Adult Contemporary Album on the weekend at the Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Meanwhile, Burlington rockers Finger Eleven are embarking on a European tour with Kid Rock starting Saturday in Ireland. The tour takes them to England, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden. It'll be Finger Eleven's final tour promoting the band's hit album Them Vs. You Vs. Me before working on new songs for its fifth studio CD.
Not to be outdone, Burlington-Hamilton rockers Saint Alvia recently made a quick trip to Japan, as one of nine bands sponsored in part by the Canadian government and the Canadian embassy in Tokyo. Saint Alvia performed Nov. 12 at a 750-seat theatre with Patrick Watson and Bedouin Soundclash.
grockingham@thespec.com
905-526-3331
