Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Faye-Anne Lyons.

Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

A soca princess, Faye-Ann Lyons is slowly taking her place among the great female Trinidadian soca entertainers. At 27 years old, Lyons is about to release her debut album.

Daughter of entertainer Superblue, who is an eight-time Trinidad and Tobago Road March winner, Lyons has music in her veins.

"My father is a Trinidadian artiste, my mom and uncle also sing. Growing up I was around the business, when they went on shows I was there," she told The Sunday Gleaner. While having a famous father may seem like a huge step in the business, according to the singer, she has had to face her own struggles and prove her own merit in the business.

"It wasn't as easy as people may think. It wasn't until I was 17 that I really began to know my father.

"I grew up with my mom and he was always touring, I only saw him at carnival time when he came home. It was when I was old enough that I was able to travel on my own I saw the father side of him - not the artiste side because that I knew."

While Faye-Ann grew up around music, music wasn't her first choice of a career. She grew up wanting to be in business, however, music eventually took her over.

Yet, her parents were not happy with her decision. She said they warned about the pitfalls of the business, in their effort to protect her. Being the daughter of a famous singer only helped to compound the pressure, as she had to work extra hard to prove her own worth, which she did, beginning her singing career in 2000 and worked with the Invasion band.

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Since then she has won the Roach March title in Trinidad in 2003 with her hit song Display. Faye-Ann is the third female in history to achieve the honour of winning the Road March title. Display was also the most played song during the carnival of 2003 in Trinidad.

While Display put her on the regional and international map, she sees her song My Turn as her first big break.

"My Turn was a song that I wrote to explain why I wanted to sing, that it was finally my turn to come and show my personality," she commented.

Another big break came when Faye-Ann was drafted to be a part of cricket history. Faye Ann brought her energetic and powerful voice to CWC's official song, The Game of Love and Unity.

The song featured the vocals of Jamaican artiste Shaggy, Barbadian entertainer Rupee and Trinidadian Faye-Ann Lyons, which filled the airwaves across the Caribbean and the world.

Faye-Ann was given the honour of representing her country and the Caribbean in cricket. She per-formed the song in Jamaica at the grand opening ceremony.

She said: "It was a nice experience, it was originally supposed to be Shaggy and Sean Paul and they changed it. It was nice to work with Shaggy, it was my first time to perform with him.

I've performed with other Jamaican artistes, but not him."

The opening ceremony was not Faye-Ann's first performance in Jamaica, having performed at Bacchanal carnival in 2005 and 2006. She has also dabbled a bit in dancehall and reggae, and has found local artistes always helpful to work with. She is determined that her debut album will reflect all her influences.

She stated: "I'm coming out with my first album, I don't want it to be soca alone. I want it to be the best it can be."

In the meantime, Faye-Ann plans to focus on her music and recently wed husband, fellow Trinidadian soca singer Bunji Garlin. She plans to spread her music to the world and continue to represent the Caribbean.

"I feel responsible for taking my culture, identity, music and influencing the world. I want to educate people on our music," she commented.