Well im sure people will be saying, oh MYA shes done, blah blah blah, whatever, if thats your thoughts than please dont even bother reading her interview. If you compare everything to a chart and Beyonce status than everyone is a flop, and quite frankly Prince's whole career except for a few albums has been a disaster. No im not comparing MYA and Prince, but one thing they do have in common is the "personal" route they take with their music most of the time, as MYA says thats what gets her into trouble, but she aint sweating it, i think as she nears 30 she is realising the charts are not important to "life".


The ‘liberation’ of Mya

By Tyra Vaughn
Staff Writer
tyra.vaughn@starnewsonline.com



After almost a decade in the entertainment industry, R&B singer Mya Harrison is navigating her career on her own terms.

Since coming on the music scene in 1998, the 28-year-old singer, dancer, model and actress – who was in Wilmington recently shooting the movie Love For Sale for locally based Swirl Films – has had several hit singles. Her self-titled debut album has sold more than 2 million copies and produced several hit songs, including It’s All About Me, Movin On’ and My First Night With You. And Harrison earned a Grammy for her collaboration with pop stars Pink and Christina Aguilera and hip-hop artists Missy Elliott and Lil Kim to remake the Patti Labelle classic Lady Marmalade for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack in 2001.

But singing wasn’t enough for Harrison. She started acting, too, taking roles in such films as Chicago, Havana Nights and Shall We Dance.

In Love for Sale, her 11th movie, she stars opposite actors Jackie Long from the movies Idlewild and ATL, and Jason Weaver, of ATL and Drumline.

Now what many would consider a veteran in the entertainment industry, Harrison has a adopted a new, take-charge attitude for her life and career, which means she could be singing a song about settling down with the man of her dreams or playing a naive college student learning about love.

Harrison said after experiencing her own heartache, she’s working on projects she is passionate about and can connect to personally.

“Naturally, when you’ve been through some things you want to tell a story and connect with people,” Harrison said. “It’s almost a form of therapy.”

Her new single, Ridin, which Harrison co-wrote for her new album Liberation, scheduled for release this year, is an example of Harrison’s storytelling. In the song, Harrison sings about driving around town looking for her boyfriend, whom she suspects of cheating. She looks at his ex’s home, his parents’ house and his friends’ house in search of her man.

“It’s real,” Harrison said. “Unfortunately, I’ve been in the same situation and I know a lot of people can relate to it as well.”

Liberation has had several release dates, but Harrison said it will be released sometime this year. Harrison did not say if the album would be released on her label, Motown Universal, which she said she plans to leave this year. According to rumors on some music Web sites, Harrison is being dropped from her Motown Universal, but Harrison said she was ready to part ways with her label.

Harrison released her second album, Fear of Flying, in 2000, which featured the pop-style singles Free and Case of the Ex and the hip-hop anthem Best of Me, made popular when Jay-Z rapped on the remix. After Flying, Mya worked with several pop, R&B and hip-hop artists on songs for movie soundtracks, such as Ghetto Superstar for the movie Bulworth and Take Me There for The Rugrats Movie. She released Moodring, her third studio album, in 2004.

While some people might argue over Harrison’s relevance in today’s music scene, she continues to draw attention, and photographers, when she attends entertainment events such as VH1’s Save the Music Foundation anniversary gala in September, or Out Magazine’s Out 100 Awards in November.

Harrison, who appears to be passionate about her new movie, sat down with the Star-News last month during a break in filming for Love for Sale to discuss her career.

Q: What is the movie ‘Love for Sale’ about?

A: The movie, which is directed by (nationally syndicated radio host) Russ Parr, is about many characters’ personal stories about love and life, trial and error.

Q: What is your character?

A: I play Kiely, a college student who’s been involved with her controlling boyfriend for six years. She meets Trey (played by Long), which is a guy she wouldn’t normally give the time of day, and by watching him learns what true love is.

Q: What attracted you to this character?

A: It was actually one of the first scripts that I read where I didn’t fall asleep. I could relate to it, and I wanted to see what the characters were going to do and how they would handle certain situations. I hope to find those answers and answers to situations in my own personal life through this movie.

Q: Why did you start acting?

A: I like acting because I feel like I can go places where people might turn their heads if Mya Harrison might do it, but if I’m Kiely or Jessica or whoever, I’m telling someone else’s story and I can be whoever I want to be.

Q: When is your next album coming out?

A: It will be some time in 2008.

Q: Tell me about your new album?

A: I don’t like to talk about my album until it’s out on the shelves. I’m not giving up too much information, but all I’ll say is I’ll have a series of albums coming out. The album is already recorded.

Q: If the album is already recorded, then what’s the holdup?

A. Every record company is in transition right now so when the record company has to wait for income then the artist has to wait. Sometimes an artist might decide they want to part ways when they don’t want to wait.

Q: Are you planning on leaving your record label?

A: Yes. I’ll be leaving Motown Universal some time next year.

Q: Do you plan on signing with another label?

A: I don’t really want to sign to another label. If you end up funding most of your projects, why not distribute your own product and make 100 percent of your profits?

Q: With singles like ‘Ridin,’ it seems like you’re getting more personal with your music.

A: I know, and sometimes it scares me because I’m not sure that people want to hear that from me. There are some people who really like to see me dancing and there are other people who were saying that I wasn’t talking about anything in my music.

Q: Do you think your fans will be receptive to your new sound?

A: I don’t know, but it feels good speaking from the heart. I’ve learned you cannot please the world and there’s going to be criticism for everything that you do.

Q: What’s next in your career?

A: I’ll be performing in Chicago on Broadway in the spring.



Ironically MYA points out a few interesting things, Motown claims that it invested 3 million in Promo in MYA (such a lie), truth is, Motown did almost nothing except send MYA out to promote the album on numerous occasions only to pull the record back, also MYA's videos for this record were all paid by her, not Motown. Motown seems to be trying to get money back since it is in some serious danger from losses posted this year at Universal that have trickled down to them of course. MYA seems to be going the Amerie and Teedra Moses route with Mix Tapes and things of that nature this year, MYA has tons of tracks from the past 2 records and songs she wrote after Liberation that were never released that she puts up on her myspace site, Liberation was issued in Japan as a digital download only, and despite a few bad rap guests on 2 tracks, the album features some of her stronger songs, mainly "I am" with Penelope Jones.

And a gorgeous shot of her here in NYC hosting a party on New Years Eve


[Edited 1/5/08 20:20pm]

Mya is sexy,but as an artist,she has no personality.Her music isn't very interesting.

I'd do her.