“Oversized personality” seems a woefully inadequate description of the impact Nadine Willis has when she walks into a room. Nadine Willis commands attention. She is beautiful, stunning even, loud, gregarious and warm. Her 5’ 9” frame, strong cheekbones and penetrating eyes scream model from the minute you lay eyes on this Jamaican beauty. With a piercing laugh and larger than life persona she commands the attention of all around her. Known for her boisterous behaviour it is easy to equate Nadine with those oft found celebrity traits of rude, obnoxious and selfish. But spending some time one on one with Nadine you glean some insight into her rich and generous personality. Nadine’s honesty is not as intimidating as her forthrightness. She is blunt beyond reproach. She is honest and frank in a manner that is at once outrageous and disarming with its charming naiveté.
Nadine’s is a story of success that triumphs adversity of the most severe. A story not merely of choices made during difficult times but of strength and a deep sense of personal pride in understanding her roots and her own path. Nadine relates her story and some of its most chequered aspects without an ounce of the shame we would otherwise expect of behaviour that fails the societal test of decent. Nadine’s rise from the deepest levels of poverty in Jamaica, carrying today the scars she suffered at the hands of physical abuse by her (now deceased) father, a path that took her to dancing at strip clubs, to having a child out of wedlock and to the heights of fame and success in modelling - appearing in French Vogue with Mario Testoni (one of the world’s most acclaimed photographers) and an advertising campaign for Gucci and now on the cusp of a new profession in music, is the stuff of urban lore. Nadine’s success transgresses race and sex. But it is her honesty about her life – her ability to speak candidly without shame, reproach or worry of being judged that may be her greatest strength. Music is her next frontier but I suspect that with many more hills to climb this is a woman who will one day inspire across all walks of life – from rich to poor; hers is a simple but powerful guiding principle for living life.
Ocean Style: What was it like growing up without your parents?
Nadine: Well it was rough. It was hard but I learned how to survive. I had to get over it and focus and know what I wanted out of life and I move on even though they were not there. I do not really focus on the past. I tried to move on with my life and focus on the future and the present.
Ocean Style: Do you have a relationship with either of your parents today?
Nadine: No, my father died and my mother, I can’t stand her very much.
Ocean Style: She lives in Jamaica?
Nadine: Yes, she does.
Ocean Style: Okay, and how old is your daughter now?
Nadine: She is eight years old.
Ocean Style: What is her name?
Nadine: Tatiana Burg.
Ocean Style: Are you in contact with her father anymore?
Nadine: No – but I know where he is
Ocean Style: Does she have a relationship with him?
Nadine: No.
Ocean Style: Do you want her to have a relationship with him?
Nadine: If she wants to, it is her choice but at this stage it does not really matter unless he is going to pay me like seven years worth of school fees and child support and all that. It is not worth it.
Ocean Style: Tell us a little bit of being a single mother and international model, how were you able to balance the two.
Nadine: It is hard, it is hard and it is rough, its costly, because you have to pay a baby sitter or boarding for her and you have also to pay the school fees because I made her go to a good school. But I try to survive up on everything and every hard road that come; I know God will give me more that I can go on.
Ocean Style: Would you like to have more children?
Nadine: Yes, maybe one or two more. If I go back and I have a son I am tying it right there.
Ocean Style: Alright, there are many different guesses around. How old are you?
Nadine: Let put it this way. I have not reached 30 yet. Definitely I have not reach 30.
Ocean Style: Will you show us you drivers license?
Nadine: No, I will not, because I will not tell you. A lady never tells her age.
Ocean Style: But the celebrity must have an age.
Nadine: Alright next birthday I have I will reveal my true age.
Ocean Style: Are you presently involved?
Nadine: What would I say? I am involved and not involved because I do not know, I just started a relationship I do not know where it is going to go or what is going to happen and also the person that I am with, is a grown man but also young in his brain.
Ocean Style: Is he Jamaican?
Nadine: Yes, he is.
Ocean Style: What are you looking for in a mate?
Nadine: In a mate….a fine-looking mate. Well he can be in between. He does not have to be rich but I would love if he is available to live comfortably or even if he is poor and he is a nice person and we can grow with each other that is fine. I respect someone that respects me and always appreciate me for who I am and do not ask me to change because Nadine Willis ain’t going to change….she’s going to tell you the truth as how it is…nothing more and nothing less.
Ocean Style: He would have to be Jamaican?
Nadine: No. He can be any nation I do not have any problem against any nation, whether White, Black, Chinese, Japanese, Indian any colours does not matter what country.
Ocean Style: Are you high maintenance, Nadine?
Nadine: No, I am not high maintenance. If you can put up with my daughter you can put up with me. I do not need much, she has school fees, she has (birthday) parties to go, and (birthday) parties to keep.
Ocean Style: What turns you on most in a man?
Nadine: Love my daughter and treat her with respect and show that you do not treat her less than your child.
Ocean Style: What is the most outrageous proposition that you ever received?
Nadine: It was with my ex-fiancée when he proposed and told me that he loved me and he wanted to marry me and that finally he’d divorced, when he was not divorced.
Ocean Style: Describe your most romantic date.
Nadine: My most romantic date. Well once I was with this Trinidadian guy, Val Campbell. It was my birthday party when I met him at the Pegasus (Jamaica Pegasus Hotel). I met him through a friend Claudia Pegus and he told me ‘would you go to dinner with me?’ and I said, okay. He hired a car to take us, which I did not expect, flowers and he took me to Strawberry Hill and we sat down just the two of us and had dinner under the moonlight and talked. Then we dumped the car and bodyguard and went to Quad and Asylum and danced…. it was beautiful.
Ocean Style: What is your favourite spot for romantic getaways in the Caribbean?
Nadine: My favourite spot for romantic getaway, I would actually pick Jamaica.
Ocean Style: Where?
Nadine: Like if you want to be naughty I would say Hedonism 3 or 2 and if you want to be aristocratic and quiet and be peaceful with nobody bothering you then Ritz-Carlton.
Ocean Style: Jamaica recently held an election and saw a change in leadership. You were on the platform publicly supporting the PNP, what are your thoughts about the change in government?
Nadine: I respect the present Prime Minister Mr. Bruce Golding and some of his ministers that I know personally but there is only going to be one prime minister for me.
Ocean Style: And, that would be.
Nadine: Portia Simpson-Miller.
Ocean Style: Do you think that Ms. Simpson-Miller was gracious in defeat?
Nadine: She was gracious in defeat but also, no one will ever give up a position—without throwing up a little up fire there. It is a human nature, she is human. And, she is a strong woman to take all at that they have thrown to her. So, I respect her and I really can tip my hat to her and say ‘You are one amazing woman.’ She is one of my idols.
Ocean Style: Another former model and well known face Lisa Hanna recently entered politics, what are your thoughts about that?
Nadine: I congratulate Lisa Hanna for her victory, she is a beautiful woman and she is a very smart Jamaican.
Ocean Style: Would you contemplate politics one day for yourself?
Nadine: You never know. You never know.
Ocean Style: You launched your music career in the throes of the election build up. So, tell us a little bit about this new career path.
Nadine: My brother is a singer and when I was a child, I used to move around with him going back and forth with Everton Blender and all of them and being on Rockford out by the beach and learning to sing but I never actually been in the studio. The first time I ever launched a song, and (worked) in the studio, is with the Prime Minister on a song that I did for her. It is one of my first loves because I love music dearly.
Ocean Style: So, is this another one of those model turned actress or turned singer stories?
Nadine: No, it is like one of those models turned actresses, there is a human being here doing what she is supposed to do, doing what she needs to do to stay in the game, you cannot stick one place in the game otherwise the game was won and you do not realize it, so you have to change the game.
Ocean Style: So, what have you done to prepare yourself to become a professional singer?
Nadine: Well, I have sat down with my manager, Kingsley Cooper, and I have Grub Cooper from Fab 5, who is working with me, my voice training and everything. Two back-up singers were arranged for me. My singing name is Nagina because my name is Nadine and Gina. It is something that I really wanted to do but I was always scared, I did not know how I was going to do, but when I did the Prime Minister’s song and heard how it turned out, I was very pleased with myself, I could not believe it was me, so I went on to decide that that is it, and I sat down with Kingsley Cooper and he put a wonderful team together for me.
Ocean Style: What type of music do you plan to do?
Nadine: A mixture of singing, reggae, maybe a little hip-hop on top of it, I will definitely always keep a little reggae in my music because I am Jamaican and I will never turn my back on my country.
Ocean Style: When do you plan to release your first single?
Nadine: Well, before the end of the year definitely.
Ocean Style: Any thoughts about collaborations with any other artists?
Nadine: Not yet but it is definitely in the portfolio.
Ocean Style: Who are some of your role models in music?
Nadine: Some of my role models in music are Kenny Rogers, Gladys Knight, Tessan Chin, Sean Paul, Shaggy and Bob Marley of course. I love Tanya Stevens - trust me I can go on all day.
Ocean Style: Are there any singers out there now who your sound will resemble?
Nadine: No, I am trying to do my original, my own type of music; I do not want to sound like anyone else’s.
Ocean Style: Because there is only one Nadine.
Nadine: There is only one Nadine. I got offered before to do music by a big agent in London, music agent, and I refused it because what they wanted was another Grace Jones and I already played the part of Grace Jones in my modelling, I did not want to go on to be Grace Jones not because I do not love her, I love her dearly because she is the one that put us as black models out there but I wanted to come out Nadine.
Ocean Style: As we get back to modelling, your rise in fashion is pretty much unprecedented. What accounted for that explosive rise?
Nadine: Luck is one of them and at that time, I was right where I wanted to be. God placed me where he wanted me to be at that time because it could not be any earlier and it could not be any sooner. Because I had got a chance to go away before and I did not get to go - even on the day of the flight. I had to come back home from the airport and one year later, I left and I became successful and everything hit at that time and all I can say is, I was right where I was supposed to be.
Ocean Style: Do you think you have achieved your full potential in modelling?
Nadine: No, I would not say that. I have not fulfilled my full potential but they said they give you seven careers. I am only at my fourth. I still got three more to go.
Ocean Style: Why not?
Nadine: Because when you see a lot of models where they are right now, when you look at the likes of Grace Jones and Naomi Campbell, Iman, she is one of my best, when you see all of them, I am still not there, I have been there, I had been the idol of a lot Jamaican girls, Caribbean girls, or even overseas, but I am still not where these girls are, and I think I can reach there if I get the chance.
Ocean Style: In modelling or in a new career?
Nadine: In modelling.
Ocean Style: Really? You hit the top so fast and then it just seemed to…..
Nadine: I did not get to learn, I was at the top, when you go to the top, where else can you go?
Ocean Style: Very true. So, what happened?
Nadine: The thing is, some models get to learn everything from a growth, a baby stage. As what I had to do when I was young or as a baby, as a child, I had to grow up too fast and so did my career, my career grew too fast so I did not learn to creep before I walk.
Ocean Style: Is that a tough thing to reconcile?
Nadine: It is a tough thing because when you are at the top, people expect you to stay there 24/7 and not all the time you can. You might go up to the top today and then you come back down and then you go back up the top the next day, and that is all that is, it is life, it is only human, you are only someone. People expect too much from you, and that is my biggest problem, because too much was expected from me, and that is how it is, it will happen. When you reach the top, people expect things from you and you have to deliver.
Ocean Style: Alright, but do you feel as though you reached the top and as you said, the expectations were that you are going to stay there and sustain that - when that did not happen, do you feel as though people pulled their support.
Nadine: Yeah some people pull their support but, you know what, I have not finished reaching the top yet. I am going to change the rules. I am going to be the first one to go to the top and even higher
Ocean Style: Tell us something about your modelling experience that you never shared before?
Nadine: Actually there are a lot of things I learnt from my modelling experience, I experience of how to be calm, how to be humble, that the simplest thing can hurt someone’s feelings because each culture is different. You have got to learn – every model has got to learn to deal with the French, the English, the Americans, the Italians, the Africans, and you have to learn how to deal with all these clients, the different countries of clients because they do not read the things you… you may deal with an English and you talk to them just like I would be talking to you now and you are comfortable and you are happy and then you go to the French and they think you are rude. And that is the very thing in the modelling industry it is very tough. If you would be quiet and you do not say anything they think you are rude. If you do not eat, they think you are rude because they offer you food and you would not eat so they think you are sick when you do not eat. Sometimes it is not that you do not eat that food that they are serving at that time, but you have to. It is a very tricky business, it is very hard and you learn that sometimes something that you do not eat, you have to eat.
Ocean Style: Jamaican seems to have the most success with models from the Caribbean.
Nadine: We are beautiful women.
Ocean Style: There are beautiful women throughout the Caribbean. What do you think accounts for the difference in success in terms of international achievement.
Nadine: Right now, because we have broaden the horizon like Jaunel, Carla, Nadine, Nel, all of those we have broaden the horizon for the Jamaican models. There is a time that Africa is the focus on modelling, on models. And there is that time of the French or England and then it is Jamaican time for the first time in a long time in years Jamaica is right here focused on finding models and finding locations and everything and that is because of the Jamaican models - like me, Jaunel, Carla, and Nel, and all of us Zuna. There is not another Fashion Week in the Caribbean like Caribbean Fashion Week - we bring in models, we bring in designers from all over the world and are now joining Caribbean Fashion Week. Maybe soon it is another Gucci, entering Caribbean Fashion Week. You never know. Caribbean Fashion Week is now three or five times the size when it first started.
Ocean Style: Do you get involved in helping some of the lesser experienced models, like some…
Nadine: Well, when we are called upon we do so because we are the idols of these worlds, they want to be just like – they want to be a Jaunel. They want to be a Carla. Everybody wants to be different. They have their different idols. Some want to be Nadine. So, everyone has their different people, you have to show experience and you have to go out there and teach them, the girls, how to grow up even if some of them do not get the chance to be a Nadine or a Carla because you cannot be a Nadine or a Carla or Jaunel. You can be yourself. You can make your name or if you do not make a name, you will make a name in something else and that is what a lot of girls do not understand. Maybe modelling was not cut out for you. Maybe modelling was not cut out for me. Maybe music is the thing that was supposed to put me to my higher heights. Maybe it is acting, maybe it is designing. You never you know.
Ocean Style: You mentioned Gucci just now; tell us all about landing that famous Gucci campaign.
Nadine: Landing that Gucci campaign was the highlight of my career and I do not even know how up until today I landed the campaign. Mario Testino was beautiful, a nice man, I love the man dearly and that is one of the reasons why I landed Gucci because of Mario Testino and French Vogue. I saw this man and then he booked me for French Vogue and I shot it and it was amazing and I have Mario Testino to thank and a lot of the wonderful photographers that shot me and pulled out the beauty that they want.
Ocean Style: Where did you meet Mary Testino?
Nadine: I met him in London.
Ocean Style: At a casting?
Nadine: No he called up my new agent to see me because he heard that there was this new black girl in Jamaica and in London and she was fierce and my agent called him and he said, ‘I would love to see her’, and I went over and he was like, ‘You are beautiful, I am going to make you a star’ and he was a nice person. There could never be another Mario Testino. I will not run into another client that shoot me like Mario Testino did, he was like a family member.
Ocean Style: What is the most memorable photo shoot?
Nadine: My most memorable photo shoot, I have two. I would say the Gucci and also the French Vogue, because Gucci was my first campaign. French Vogue, I got a lot of experience. It was the first time someone told me to rip up a designer gown by trying to get anger out of me, trying to make me angrier for the photo shoot and told me to rip up the designer gown, I said, I cannot do that, it is a wonderful dress, and he said, “Do it! You are ugly, you are stupid!” And he told me all kinds of stuff to get me mad at him, Mario and I had to do what he told me to do. The also he had me standing almost literally in the street naked, butt naked, with just a jacket on for a photo shoot. Gucci was an experience. Meeting Tom Ford. Going to LA. It was my first time in America.
Ocean Style: So, which was the designer dress you ripped off?
Nadine: I cannot remember.
Ocean Style: Who is the bitchiest of the super models you worked with?
Nadine: Naomi, and pretend to be nice with it, but I still love her dearly because she is one of the models that put herself out there as black models. She just needs to know that this business was not made for Naomi only. It was not made for Nadine only, it was not made for Tyra Banks only, it was not made for none of us only. Models come, models go. Younger ones come, younger ones will quit the job and new faces will be there. Support your black models. If another black model, come what may, and there are only few, how can I disrespect or think I should bad mouth that girl. I just respect them because you know what, she got here. And you do not know where she came in from to get here. She may be coming from worse than you. Respect that girl that she got at the top and help to elevate her. Just like when I met Iman, she helped me. She spoke with me and she has done a lot with me. I love Iman dearly, and also, that African model, the bald headed one, Alek Wek. You cannot get any sweeter than Alek Wek. That is how models should be. Models should uplift their other black models.
Ocean Style: Not Naomi huh?
Nadine: That is what made Naomi, if she changes now, people will be like ‘Oh no, you do not come in trying to turn Christian on me. No way’ so, you know you have to still respect her because that is Naomi’s reputation and she has to maintain her reputation.
Ocean Style: Well, her reputation put her in court a couple of times as well.
Nadine: Well, you know how it is. She just needs to know, when she behaves, do not lift the hand, leave them there and she will save a couple of million dollars.
Ocean Style: Ten years from today where will Nadine Willis be?
Nadine: I do not know. I just hope maybe, on the height of my music career and my modelling. My modelling at that time will be like a sport, once in a while. But hopefully, definitely on the height of my music and maybe acting and little designing, you never know.
Ocean Style: And who are Nadine’s Heroes.
Nadine: Well, I have go with our national heroine, Nanny of the Maroons in Jamaica. I have got to put my (former) Prime Minister there Portia Simpson-Miller and I have to put Grace Jones there. Do you know why? Because Grace Jones is coming from nothing to something and you have to respect those people. I would dedicate one of my heroes to a lot of my Jamaican women that do not (sic) make poverty, maybe a situation, but is not your destiny and I have to give power to those ladies that recognize that. The situation is not your destiny, you make your destiny.
Ocean Style: There are some people who sit in judgment of girls who have to dance or strip or whatever; they judge them for what is seen as taking an easy way out of not working or finding some other credible profession.
Nadine: I would tell those people that are saying they can find other ways out to give them a job - to go take them off the stage and give them a better career because they think they can do better, you give them a job that is going to be worthwhile to feed their kids and to feed themselves and help them get a home.
Off the Cuff (if we can incorporate)
Favorite food Stew Peas
Favourite restaurant I like a lot of Chinese. I go to a lot of Chinese restaurants. (No particular restaurant named as Nadine determined that would have been free advertising for them).
Favourite designer Ms Claudia Pegus - she is one of them.
Greatest inspiration: My greatest inspiration is my daughter.
What do you do for exercise? Walk. I have to walk a lot, because where I have to take my daughter I have to walk there and I have to walk it back home.
Cell phone or BlackBerry - BlackBerry is nice.
PC or Mac? - PC.
Fendi or Versace? Versace.
La Perla or Victoria Secret - Victoria Secret.
What’s playing in your iPod? - Oh, Kenny Rogers, Gladys Knight, Percy Sledge, Dean Martin, Jackson Five, Nadine. I have Steel Pulse. I might have a little bit of Sean Paul and Shaggy in there, and a couple of Bob Marley.
