By Essiba Small
Cover Photo:Youdy Sanon
Angela Hunte’s current album Mango is much more than a long-awaited new release. For the “Party Done” and “Mon Bon Ami” singer, it is also cathartic. Originally, Mango was planned for a 2022 release. Then life happened.
“I had a very major health scare in my life, the singer and Grammy-Award-winning songwriter told Kitcharee in a Zoom interview from her Miami base.
“I had to have heart surgery and all I could think about was my family – my husband and my children,” she said, her words dropping like mini bombs.
“I am 100% healthy now, but last year around this time I was learning to walk and talk again.
“You hear so many stories about people who don’t get this outcome. That was the peril of making this album.”
Insisting that she prefers not to dwell on what happened to her, Hunte said artistes often face backlash on social media when their albums fail to “drop” as promised, but their fans have no clue what challenges they face.
“I am smiling now because I am grateful that I am doing what I love. What happened to me happened, but that’s not my only story. I don’t dwell on it.
“I’m always in thought for people in that position. When you get out of it you realise how lucky you are.”
Hunte emerged from her medical emergency as a different woman and changed the original plans she had for Mango. She compared it to giving birth.
“It was a long, tedious and meticulous album that I put 200% in. “I never faced so much adversity making music. That’s why this is very special.”
Mango is now out, a healthy musical baby with all the songs that make his mama happy.
“I listen to this album in my car every day,” she said with a laugh.
“Usually when I am done with an album, I am on to the next, it’s never like this.”
Her fans have also been loving on Mango, a name Hunte gave to this body of work for a number of reasons.
“Yuh ever see somebody eat a mango and look unhappy?” she said, switching out her American accent briefly for her colloquial T&T accent. Even though Hunte was born in Brooklyn, she grew up in Barataria and migrated to the US when she was a teenager.
“If you go anywhere in the world and show someone a pommecythere they wouldn’t know what it is but pull out a mango!”
Like the fruit, Mango, the album features different flavours. Genres include the gospel “All I Need”, in which she taps into her days of singing with church choirs, and collabs with Wyclef Jean, Tarrus Riley and Fay-Ann Lyons-Alvarez. “One of our producers heard the title track “Mango” and said Wyclef should be on it. I said to him ‘if you can make that happen then I will be happy’. Now I am honoured to have him on the track.”
Hunte, who compared Tarrus Riley’s vocals to the likes of Teddy Pendergrass, Marvin Gay and Donnie Hathaway, called the singer her brother from another mother.
“I don’t think people realise how incredible he is. When we come together it is like coming together with Machel: our synergy is incredible. Musically, we are like one.”
Hunte was also stoked about working with the Viqueen Fay-Ann, who she said was made for the album.
“As soon as I did ‘Gelato’ I knew she had to be on it. I wanted her to sound a way she hasn’t before. We’re kind of whispering at the start and then we explode at the end of the song, she said excitedly, her curls bouncing as she rocked her head back.
“And Fay-Ann proceeded to destroy it! I think that for Trinidad Carnival 2025, this will be a big song for the ladies.”
Speaking of T&T Carnival, it’s been a long time since the festival has seen Hunte, for reasons she said she is now ready to share.
“Machel (Montano) was so pivotal in embracing me and allowing me to be who I am and the artiste that I am. I was well received by the people of T&T but not the music community,” she said matter of factly.
“I didn’t expect to come back home and have everyone thinking I was super, but I was taken aback by the music community, those who said I didn’t pay my dues and asked ‘whey she come from?’ although I have been around for a while.”
“DJs didn’t want to play the music, bookers didn’t want to book me…”
Hunte took the decision then to bow out of T&T Carnival, refusing to fight the system and instead returned to the US where she scored and directed films through her company.
She would never forget the pep talk that Kees Dieffenthaller gave her.
“Our conversation was very uplifting and eye-opening. He was very passionate and sincere and told me don’t stop making music.
“I said okay, God, yuh send him.”
And if Hunte ever doubted the love her local fans had for her, Elizabeth Montano compiled all the newspaper stories written on the singer and put them in a scrap book. It served as a reminder, even today, that she said what she was doing was not in vain.”
Hunte is also a prolific songwriter who won a Grammy Award for Jay Z’s “Empire State of Mind” featuring Alicia Keys.
She was first encouraged by a friend to write songs to make extra money. Then Jheryl Busby, deceased former CEO of Motown, spoke it into her life, said it. It sealed the deal for her.
Hunte said she was surprised when he told her she would be a singer later in life but that she will be a songwriter first. She didn’t get it until later on in life.
Angela the singer and Angela the songwriter are two different beasts.
“My nickname as a songwriter is ‘Gunner’ because I don’t miss,” she said with a laugh.
“When I walk into the studio my goal is to come out with a piece of art. I am a studio beast. I do stadium music. It’s going to be big, and it is going to roar. I am no nonsense, strategic and very passionate.”
Angela the artiste is just as passionate but vulnerable, gentle and fragile.
“Then there is Angela the performer. I sit down quietly backstage, but when I put my feet on stage, it’s a big explosion.”
The fact that Mango is now on global platforms means everything to Angela.
“It’s what I wanted for this album, to be stamped global. Everywhere I go my flag is with me.
“No matter what music I make, the baseline is Trinbago, even the visuals were shot here. I came in quietly last month and shot seven pieces here.”
Mango the album is available on all streaming platforms, and you can keep up with the singer at angelahunte.com. Hunte’s next project is a steelband documentary on Meyer Levin Jr High Steelband out of Brooklyn, New York, USA. Meyer Levin Jr is Hunte’s alma mater.
“I am a mother, wife, producer, songwriter, director, singer … I do many different things. I want to do everything God has put me here to do.”
