By Michael Mondezie
Yes, Indeed! I am a Hopeful Romantic.’ It’s not just a marketing ploy. Singer Monique La Chapelle genuinely embodies the title of her debut extended play (EP) album: The Hopeful Romantic.
An endearing La Chapelle gushed over the idea of a quirky fairy-tale kind of love where starcrossed soulmates find their way into each other’s arms.
‘At the same time a hopeful romantic isn’t naive to the fact that it can all come crashing down one day,’ she added with a sprinkling of reality.
The swashbuckling love crusader who throws their emotions to the wind is what the Port of Spain-born singer calls a hopeless romantic. La Chapelle says a few broken hearts have taught her to ‘never approach love so blindly ever again’.
‘For my entire life I’ve been a hopeless romantic, but I’ve found that being hopeless means you don’t take caution when it comes to falling in love. Unfortunately, I got my heart broken already and promised myself to never approach love so blindly ever again. Of course, I will fall in love again someday, but I’m wiser now and hopeful instead of being hopeless,’ she said with smiling eyes during an online
La Chapelle, 26, is convinced that hopeful joy can extend beyond romantic encounters. She hopes to connect those sentiments with her listeners on her debut seven-track EP. The project was released on September 9.
‘Apart from love I am also hopeful, and optimistic towards life in general, and I make it my duty to inspire, and uplift others whenever I can,’ she started saying.
Explaining that she openly shares of herself in her music she added that each track captures a true emotion at very real moments of her life.
That open, honest expression is already resonating with fans and has gained the project over 13,000 Spotify streams and just under 1,000 plays on Apple Music. Those are pretty good online stats for a new local pop act.
‘The album is about positivity and hopefulness. I speak about past relationships, my journey of believing in myself, and this can be heard on ‘Know My Name’.
The Hopeful Romantic speaks about romantic love, but I didn’t want it to only be about a romantic type of love. I’ve found love in myself, music, life, my family and friends, and the beauty of the world around me. Every song on the album is a reflection of who I am as a person, and my life experiences,’ she continued.
DISCOVERING TRUE LOVE
While La Chapelle openly sings about the longing for true love it is clear she has already found hers: music. The joy of musical expression was first revealed to the gifted vocalist as a shy eight-year-old at Bishop Anstey Junior School, St Ann’s.
‘I remember being blown away by my music teacher Mr Michael White who was playing piano one morning by himself in the music room. I was walking by and I couldn’t help but open the door to the music room to see who was playing so beautifully. When I opened the door I saw him performing and he looked so happy and at peace in another world. I said to myself, I want to be there someday, I want to play piano that great, I want to learn music, it seemed so freeing,’ she revealed.
Seeing her passion for music Mr White soon reached out to La Chapelle’s mother for her to start piano classes and as she recalls: ‘That’s where it began. I knew from then on that I had a passion for music and wanted to do music professionally.’
La Chapelle went on to join the school choir at her alma mater Providence Girls’ High School in Belmont, and later complete a degree in Musical Arts at The University of the West Indies, St Augustine campus.
Those experiences have taught her to pour her soul into the music she creates, she added. It’s a message she shares openly with students at her La Chapelle School of Music.
‘When I sit at my piano or with my ukulele to write, I always put my soul into my music. I have this songwriter’s saying, ‘Don’t put anything into a song unless you feel it with your soul’. Whenever someone listens to my music, I want it to soothe them. I want them to know they aren’t alone in the circumstances that they are faced with. It may sound weird, but I want to hug people’s hearts with my music.
‘My desire is that after they’ve had an exhausting day, they can put on my music, and unwind emotionally. I made the decision to use my real name as my stage name because my objective is to present myself as an authentic person, with an undying love for music, and the gift of life. I want to always show up as my true self despite what others might want me to be,’ she said.
