‘I can rock the stage all day but just knowing that my baby is there when I get home. That’s the icing on the cake’ -Ciara

Last week, I interviewed Ciara and I must say it was quite an interesting experience.  First thing first, anyone who has read my old blog entries know that on-camera interviewing is a challenge for me.  It’s just something that I’ve never been comfortable with and for that reason alone, I don’t do them often. [the exception has been Amber Rose, Big Sean and Lala]

Last year, I ran into Angie Martinez at an event in Los Angeles and I told her how much I loved her and how when I use to work in radio, I downloaded her interviews after her show every single day just to study her interviewing techniques. I said, ‘You are amazing at interviewing’ and she responded, ‘I would think so after 20 years’.  That was a reminder to me that anyone who has ever been great at anything, has practiced, practiced, practiced their craft. How am I ever going to get comfortable interviewing celebs in front of the cameras if I don’t practice at it? You just don’t step in front of the cameras and become Barbara Walters or Oprah overnight. After I thought about this carefully, I promised myself this year that I was going to challenge myself, face my fears and I was going to take this thing head on… so here I am.

Now Back to Ciara…

Before the interview even started I had a glass of wine and a shot of vodka (I know I know, tragic..but I had to calm my nerves. I was a wreck).  Ciara finally arrived and we just about had on the same shirt. Like, you can’t make this stuff up..lol!

Despite all of the behind the scenes stuff that was going on, I really enjoyed the interview.  Ciara was very open and wasn’t as guarded as I had expected her to be.  I learned, just from my observation, that she still loves and cares for a certain rapper.  She’s completely over Amar’e Stoudemire and happy for his engagement because she feels as though, he did what was right for his situation and family. She’s a hopeless romantic.  Over the years, her career has taken up a lot of her time and now she wants to find someone that she can take the journey with;  to share her success with and travel the world with.  I believe I had somewhat of a wake up call during our interview, because she expressed a lot of things that I have been thinking about a lot but never really expressed.  I too, wanted to experience the feeling of being loved and in love.  She said, ‘without love, you have nothing. At least in my book‘.

If you go back and look at Ciara’s videos and performances, (‘Promise’, ‘Like A Boy’, ‘Oh’, ‘Goodies’, ‘Get Up’ and so on), it’s clear that she has the ‘It’ factor, but I think what has been holding her back for a few years is that people felt as though they didn’t know who she was as a person.  They didn’t feel connected.  My only hope is that after watching the interview, that people feel as though she is someone that they can relate to.

She was dope!

Part 1 Ciara chats about her dancing background, 50 Cent and desire for love

Part 2 Ciara talks past relationship with Amar’e Stoudemire, His engagement and what she’d like for her legacy to be

Bloopers