Five Questions With Yanique ‘Curvy Diva’ Barrett

On the local entertainment circuit, she is known as the ‘Curvy Diva’, but the ineffable personality that is Yanique Barrett is so much more than that. A radio personality, television host, model, mother and excellent chef – dancehall’s curvaceous one embodies what it means to be multitalented.

Her debut single – Lifestyle – introduced her as a bona fide recording artiste back in 2017. The track was a hit, and the Curvy Diva has not slowed down her musical rise since. In three years, the entertainer has landed collaborations with artistes such as I-Octane, Wasp, Ky-Mani Marley, Gyptian and Demarco. Her single, Bunx Pon It, with Demarco, which was released last year, has amassed a whopping 38 million views on YouTube.

With her musical foundation now firmly set, the Curvy Diva is looking to expand her horizons as she gets ready to drop an Afrobeat single with Nigerian artiste Solid Star. This week’s Five Questions With sought to explore the mind of the Curvy Diva.

How have you been handling quarantine and the resulting restrictions and lockdown? What have you been doing to stay sane in this time?

I’m a businesswoman at heart. I’ve always been so regardless of being an artiste or TV host. I have always ventured into different projects, and so for me this lockdown kinda just allowed me to find the time to do it all. Normally, as an artiste you have a lot of shows on the road, flying out most weekend,s and since the lockdown happened you had less of that, and it allowed me time to push the projects I have been working on for years to the forefront and get them done. Staying busy has kept me sane.

What has been the most valuable lesson the hardships of 2020 have taught you?

The most valuable lesson everything that has happened in 2020 has taught me is to just have a better understanding of the importance of saving and being prepared. I mean, we are now more aware than ever that anything can happen. Nobody would have foreseen this whole COVID thing, and to know that something out of the blue happened and shut down the world has taught me that I need to be prepared, financially and otherwise. Come 2021, I’m going to try and make sure that I am even more financially stable and comfortable.

Curvy Diva and Afrobeats: what’s up with that? What is the inspiration behind this move?

I’ve always been a huge fan of Afrobeats. I remember going to Africa for a show two years back, and it was amazing. I was there with WizKid, and I met up with a couple other African artistes, and it was just something that I loved. I loved the beat, the riddim, the music. It makes you wanna move and groove and wine up yuhself (laughs). And so I knew I wanted to do some work in that genre. Now I’m getting the chance to do just that, and I’m just grateful for it, it’s amazing. Africa loves me. I have lots of followers in Africa. My song Lifestyle is big over there and showing to like 200 million people, and that market for me is really strong, and so it was only natural for me to do an Afrobeats song and partner with an artiste like Solid Star.

What is one thing that people would be surprised to learn about you?

That I’m actually a cool person. I think a lot of times people would look at just how I dress, the sex appeal and everything and say, ‘Oh, she must be stuck up’ and all a dat, but really and truly I am a tomboy with just the love for girly girl stuff. I am really down to earth and really crazy, very ‘artical’ and love par wid whole heap a bredren and stuff.

You are very big on female empowerment, even in the midst of harsh criticism from women. How do you handle the criticism while still managing to empower others?

For me, having a woman or women try to tear me down, I think I look at it as a situation of just pitying them. When it comes on to a woman really trying to belittle a next female and trying to tear dem down or say stuff, it really just shows their own insecurities, that’s how I feel. So when I see that happening, I kinda just say to myself, ‘Oh geez, I wonder what they’re going through’ because it just doesn’t make sense. Even if I find myself doing it, I try to look deep within myself and say, ‘If it’s OK to say something bad about a next woman or person, there must be something wrong with me. Maybe I am feeling insecure about something’, and then I question myself and question my thoughts and try to correct the problem.

I just want females to understand that at the end of the day if yuh happy and positive, if yuh love life and you’re living your best life, you shouldn’t need to tear somebody else down. So the fact that is happening it means you’re not truly happy, you’re not truly content, and you need to really evaluate your life. I have always been the person to encourage females to find self-love and make sure they’re doing things that really and truly pleases them, so they do not need to envy and bad mind. Because no matter how you say a next girl ugly, it’s not going to make you prettier, no matter how yuh say a next girl nose big, it nah make yours any smaller, and so at the end of the day, putting down someone and chatting them and [tearing] dem down is not going to make my life better.

shereita.grizzle@gleanerjm.com