KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Gospel artiste NISA, born Genisa St Hillaire, is ded­i­cat­ed to spread­ing mes­sages of hope and en­cour­age­ment through her mu­sic and tes­ti­mo­ny. She is set to host her third con­cert, Au­ro­ra, at the Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um on May 24, start­ing at 6 pm. Known for her pow­er­ful pres­ence both in the stu­dio and on stage, NISA is ea­ger to con­tin­ue shar­ing her jour­ney and faith with her au­di­ence.

NISA was born in­to a fam­i­ly of mu­si­cians.

“My fa­ther is a key­boardist, among oth­er mu­si­cal trades, and my mum was a vo­cal­ist back in the day,” she says. “Get­ting her to sing now is al­most an im­pos­si­ble feat. Fun fact, mum­my and dad­dy were in a band when they were younger, be­fore they had me, called the Mes­si­ah Singers. Truth be told, every­one in my fam­i­ly has the skill of play­ing an in­stru­ment, singing and ar­rang­ing as well.

“I think, how­ev­er, when it comes to be­ing in­spired, I be­lieve that is a mix­ture of just be­ing around the mu­sic and hav­ing a place to share it. My mu­si­cal in­spi­ra­tions were more on the out­side. Cha­ka Khan, George Ben­son, Whit­ney Hous­ton, Al Jar­reau, Mary J Blige, CeCe Winans, Jas­mine Sul­li­van. I can call so many names.”

Hav­ing per­formed both on stage and in the stu­dio as a top go-to back­ing vo­cal­ist/arranger for many of the na­tion’s pre­mier artistes, she now brings her brand front and cen­tre.

“I spent many, many years pour­ing what I be­lieve was the best of me at the time in­to the love con­ver­sa­tion of mu­sic for oth­ers,” NISA adds.

“Then I had a sto­ry to tell. When one starts pen­ning their own ma­te­r­i­al, there’s al­most an in­stan­ta­neous shift in the at­mos­phere. Al­though I re­main ex­treme­ly shy, I would say life de­cid­ed for me. It’s just im­pos­si­ble to de­ny call­ing and pur­pose.

“So, while I am still work­ing on be­ing a stronger per­former and a more hon­est type of artiste with my songs and rep­re­sen­ta­tion, I know I made the right choice to step out. I still do back­ground work and stage de­pend­ing on the lo­gis­tics.”

The en­ter­tain­er re­leased her first sin­gle Breathe on Ju­ly 1, 2010.

“I am yet to do a full body of work. Through the years, I’ve been asked count­less times,” she says.

“If I ever do an al­bum, it has to repli­cate a cer­tain stan­dard, from pro­duc­tion to con­ti­nu­ity, etc. Ex­hales. Not sure when that time may ever be, as I know I’m al­so get­ting old­er and my voice changes with age, but God is good, man. As for sin­gles, I’ve been re­leas­ing mu­sic steadi­ly for years. I’ve got way too many sin­gles to count as I re­call at the mo­ment.”

NISA was named Fe­male Gospel Artiste of the Year three times in 2018, 2019, and 2023. She’s al­so a two-time fi­nal­ist in the Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Queen com­pe­ti­tion.

“I loved the ex­pe­ri­ence of cul­ture when I got my foot wet—or, in this case, voice wet—when I en­tered Queens,” she says.

“My life has tak­en quite a toll in terms of me be­ing busy. Al­so, we de­cid­ed that next time, I def­i­nite­ly need to have a writer and a song that can take it up a notch. So, God spare life, I know I’ll be back there.”

As part of the lo­cal­ly famed Love Link In­ter­na­tion­al Chorale, NISA has shared the stage with Gram­my-win­ning CeCe Winans and Yolan­da Adams, and per­formed live back­ground vo­cals for both lo­cal and in­ter­na­tion­al record­ing artistes such as Ron Kenoly, Rus­sell Léonce, Ri­zon, Luck­ey, Ruth Os­man, Pa­pa San, and oth­ers.

When asked if she would be part of the up­com­ing CeCe Winans More Than This Trinidad on Ju­ly 31, this is what she had to say:

“Oh my, I don’t know if I should laugh out loud at this ques­tion. Let’s just say it would’ve been an ho­n­our to be a part of this event, but I’ve not re­ceived a call. I do know that event will be spec­tac­u­lar be­cause CeCe is such a phe­nom­e­nal artiste, and I know with­out a shad­ow of a doubt that peo­ple will be blessed.”

NISA is al­so an au­thor and ra­dio an­nounc­er on SKY 99.5 FM. Au­ro­ra speaks to the birthing of an­oth­er era, spir­i­tu­al­ly and phys­i­cal­ly, in her life.