FEATURE
Phoenix Jazz: To the beat of her own drum The British-Caribbean singer talks bold moves, big dreams and finding home I f determination had an avatar, it might look a little like Sekeena Simon-Siddique.
On a stifling Tuesday at noon – immaculate in a thick lilac suit, despite the midday heat – she’s fielded calls from clients, uploaded a video to the Gram to alert her several thousand followers to her impending interview with Luxury Locations Magazine, and expertly touched up her lipstick all in the two minutes she’s spent waiting for us to arrive. This is clearly someone who understood the assignment. Just months after touching down in Antigua with ostensibly a one-way ticket from London, the tenacious 32-year-old jazz singer has already landed coveted evening slots at several of the island’s most exclusive resorts. It wasn’t just her rich, bold voice or dynamic vocal range that impressed hotel managers. It was her willingness to kick down proverbial doors and sing “uncomfortably in people’s faces”, she confesses with a hearty laugh. “I have a forward personality,” she adds, by way of explanation. With a demeanour as effervescent as champagne, a vision in oversized sunglasses, it’s something of an understatement. Such audacity is perhaps instilled in her genes. Her grandparents on both sides were Windrush-era migrants to Britain, a momentous move in those days, requiring fearlessness, steadfast optimism and courage to dream. Sekeena’s own move in reverse, two generations later, has a certain poetry to it. “I’m proud to have come back,” she says. Childhood holidays to Jamaica from where her father’s family After receiving professional training to sharpen her craft, she formed a three-piece band alongside a bass player and keyboardist. The trio became an instant hit on London’s hip pub scene, playing everywhere from iconic jazz club Ronnie Scott’s to the prestigious Park Lane hotel, The Dorchester.
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