STRONG-mindedness, discipline, passion, grit and a touch of religion are what Mica Paris says has kept her on the straight and narrow and ensured her survival in the music industry over the past 31 years.
Currently starring in the 30th anniversary tour of Fame The Musical, which comes to Belfast next week, the Londoner found her own fame while still a teenager. Her 1988 debut album, So Good, went platinum and yielded hit singles including My One Temptation and Where Is The Love.
Alongside her singing, Paris has gone on to land numerous television and radio presenting gigs, including two series of What Not To Wear, and starred in a number of stage productions, including The Vagina Monologues and Chicago.
She is relishing her latest role as Miss Sherman, the disciplinarian English teacher in Fame. "I feel like the character was written for me. It’s pretty much me playing out my parental side, as I am with my children – it’s my tough love," says Paris, who is mum to two girls, aged 28 and 13.
"She brings me back to my childhood and that period of time when teachers used to be super super strict and really care. Miss Sherman really wants these kids to have an academic education and not just to be arty, so she's not the most popular person."
Paris (50) was brought up by her grandparents, who instilled a love of music, as well as discipline – something she says is "underrated" in today's society. "My grandfather was a pastor; we were the first family of the Church. I was brought up with a conscience. It helped me a lot in my life and is perhaps why I wasn't a casualty of this industry.
She discovered her love of music when she was just five or six. "Irish houses are very similar to Jamaican houses,” she says (her ex-husband was from Co Armagh). "Our home was like a train station with people coming and going. There was also lots of food and music. It was Mozart and Joplin one moment and then Jim Reeves or gospel music the next.
"They were really strict and my school was strict as well. But there was also a lot of love in there. A lot of people associate strictness with a lack of love, but the opposite is true. To have no boundaries is lack of care. We have to come back to that with kids today."
Due to her age Paris had to get her grandfather to countersign her record deal with Island – something he reluctantly agreed to.
"I remember him telling me how I would end up messed up, on drugs and go to hell. But my grandparents were great people, I didn't want to let them down and I wanted to prove them wrong. Thank God, I did."
Paris admits that being a female, and a single parent, in the music industry hasn't been easy and she has endured arguments over artistic rights, yo-yo dieting and a bankruptcy.
Although she doesn't call herself a feminist, women's rights is a subject she is passionate about. This September she will host her new Radio 2 show, Mica Meets, in which she interviews female singers, including Sister Sledge and Gladys Knight. And next year she will release a book, I Should Have Known Better, about "the treacherous road tortured female singers have journeyed".
"It's great artists now have more control over their music, but women still get such a hard time in the media and it's time to address that. It's not about Whitney Houston and Amy Winehouse waking up and deciding I'm going to be a crack head – it doesn't work like that. I want to celebrate how powerful women succeeded but highlight there is still a need for respect."
The tragic deaths of her friends Houston and Winehouse had a big impact upon Paris.
"I knew Whitney really well. We first met in '89 in Germany doing a big pop tv show and became good friends. This industry is tough and I think Whitney was too beautiful for this world," she reflects.
Later in life, she bonded with Winehouse over the common gripe of producers trying to force other writers to pen their songs.
"Amy was great. She was like a more hardcore version of me,” she says.
But it was the loss of Prince, who once asked her to join his band, and later penned the song If I Love U 2 Nite for her, which she felt most. The last time Paris saw him was at Camden Palace – the same venue where she first met him as an 18-year-old.
"I saw him seven months before he died and little did I know that would be the last time. Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Prince were all supernovas and what they contributed to the music on this planet will never be done again."
Based on the 1980 pop culture film – which also spawned a long-running TV series – Fame The Musical is an international smash-hit which follows the lives of students at New York’s High School For The Performing Arts. It also stars Jorgie Porter, best known for playing Theresa McQueen in Hollyoaks, and Keith Jack who finished second on BBC One’s Any Dream Will Do.
Already a huge fan of Fame before being asked to become part of this production, Paris found herself drawn to the fact that the musical retains the grit of the original movie – directed by The Commitments' Alan Parker – and delves into the realities of making art and seeking celebrity.
"This show isn't twee and sugary," Paris says. "Yes, there is great music and choreography but it's the script which makes it powerful as it explores the darker side of fame. One of my songs, These Are My Children, normally sends people reaching for their tissues. It's a proper gospel song, which I've reworked, and it gets to the heart and soul of the musical."
Prince once told Paris "you're only famous once" and it's advice she passes on to young musicians today.
"The reality music shows are dangerous because they make it seem so bloody easy to become a star. The reality is you have to graft for it. What I say is don't do it unless you are not passionate about it. Don't do it to be famous.
"Prince's words are so true and when you're not flavour of the week anyone and no-one gives a s***. You've got to love what you do. I'm still gigging 31 years later. I don't just love it; I'm passionate about it and am really blessed," adds Paris, who is also planning to release a new album of original work next year.
:: Fame the Musical runs at Belfast's Grand Opera House from August 19-24. Tickets from Goh.co.uk
