With a hit song climbing Billboard’s pop chart and a critically acclaimed album, Billie Myers feels like she’s smack in the middle of a fairy tale.
“I do feel like a Cinderella story. I’m Cinderella and when twelve o’clock comes, I’ll change back into a maid,” the Jamaican-English singer-songwriter said recently of her rising single “Kiss the Rain” and her Universal Records debut album “Growing, Pains.”
“It’s like someone’s out there, like Universal’s my Prince Charming and they’re holding the shoe and I hope I fit it. When the ball is over at 12, I hope my fairy godmother doesn’t come down and change me back to the Billie Myers I once was. I hope they give me a couple of extra hours.”
No problem. Universal and EMI’s publishing company are in it for the long haul after investing a lot of confidence in Myers’ promising abilities, teaming her with producer Desmond Child and powerhouse songwriters Peter Vale, Peter Q. Harris, David Austin, George Hutchinson and former Hooters member Eric Bazilian.
Myers lived up to their expectations, creating honest, heartfelt songs, particularly “Kiss the Rain,” now at No. 66 and climbing on Billboard’s pop chart. The song addresses long distance relationships and the accompanying insecurities.
“I’d like to think that somewhere in the world someone is singing ‘Kiss the Rain’ for someone they’re really missing,” Myers said. “I remember one of the first boyfriends I ever had, separated by so many miles, he gave me Sade’s ‘Your Love Is King’ and wrote on it ‘Your Love Is Queen.’ I remember that now, especially with ‘Kiss the Rain’ being out, because when I hear people on the radio saying ‘I’m in a long-distance affair,’ I understand that. I’ve been there.”
Above all, Myers wanted to avoid being labeled another “angry young woman.” She wanted her songs to evoke hope and positivism.
“I also wanted to make sure the album retained an eclectic nature, which shows the humor side of me with ‘The Shark and the Mermaid’ and the idealistic side of me with ‘Much Change Too Soon’ and the paranoid side with ‘Kiss the Rain,’ wondering what that other person is doing without you,” she said.
“I wanted to stay honest and true to things that happened in my life, so that when I’m asked about them, I would know what I was talking about, and that when I sung them, I wouldn’t get bored of them, because they were real.”
Myers, who now lives in Miami Beach, pinches herself daily over her good fortunes.
“It’s not my god-given right to be here, and I think maybe the difference is, is that I know that,” she said. “A lot of people who have worked incredibly hard and then suddenly get snooty with the public, they don’t realize that we are very lucky. There are hundreds of releases every week, some better than ours or certainly as good as ours, and either the record company or a radio station gets behind you. If you don’t lose sight of that, you can enjoy it. Bottom line, I love what I’m doing.”
BWF (before we forget): “Kiss the Rain” peaked at No. 15 in February 1998; the album reached No. 91. … Billie Myers fans can gather on the Web @ members.itw.com/~kircmit.