hail were frequent, but the connection to her mother’s Antiguan ancestry was nebulous. Still, the 2025 vacation to Antigua with a friend was not intended to be a roots-tracing trip. “I’d never visited before and had no intention of staying. I’d almost forgotten I was Antiguan,” she recalls. However, once here, something switched. “I had a moment,” she explains. “I felt so relaxed - the mountains, the people, the way everyone says good morning. I fell in love with all of it.” The island’s small tight-knit community made it easy to find her maternal relatives. “I told a taxi guy that my family is from Urlings and my name is Simon. He literally took me straight to a family member’s house. I was in floods of tears when I met my grandmother’s sisters and cousins,” she recalls. Within months Sekeena had secured birthright citizenship and was busy mapping out a new life. Growing up in a Caribbean household in Leicester, England, music of all genres provided a constant soundtrack to her childhood. “Music was always playing in the house, so I started singing naturally.” Her talent became evident and Sekeena went on to study music and business at university. 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. “We did a few weddings there. It was very ‘Bridgerton’,” she says of the latter, pursing her lips and pulling an imperious face in humorous tribute to the swanky ambience. These days, Antigua has plenty of luxurious venues of its own. Under her nom de guerre Phoenix Jazz, Sekeena currently has a residency at South Point’s stylish waterfront restaurant Maia. Her expressive tones have also entranced audiences at Cocobay, Loose Cannon, Galley Bay, Le Bistro, Abracadabra, Al Porto, and Los Cabrones in Jolly Harbour, to name a few. Her musical influences include greats like Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Etta James. Songs such as Nat King Cole’s ‘L-O-V-E’, Amy Winehouse’s ‘Back to Black’, and the classic ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ make regular appearances among her repertoire. While Sekeena prefers to perform time-honoured covers, she does write her own material too, largely for up-and-coming dance music DJs. When she’s not singing, she can often be found hiking, learning more about her new home on local excursions, or cooking. “They call Caribbean food ‘soul food’ because you get that feeling of love. It comes from a sad place but it’s been made happy. I love to hold onto that,” she says. “I especially enjoy
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