She is bold, she is bright, she is beautiful and she is taking Angola by storm. Not bad for a transsexual in a Catholic African country where homosexuality is illegal and punishable by hard labour.
Born in Luanda as Teca Miguel Garcia, singer and dancer Titica adopted her female persona four years ago following a breast enhancement operation in Brazil.
Now, at 25, Titica is the new face of Angola’s unique urban rap-techno fusion music style known as “kuduro”.
By day her songs boom from minibus taxis, by night they fill Luanda’s dance floors and at the weekends she has become the essential soundtrack for children’s parties.
Named best kuduro artist of 2011, she is a regular on television and radio, and has even performed at the annual Divas concert, attended by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, where she herself was named a diva.
With a training in ballet, she first got involved in kuduro as a backing dancer, supporting popular acts such as Noite e Dia, Propria Lixa and Puto Portugues.
Last October she released her first song, Chao, which to date is one of the most-played kuduro tracks in Angola and its diaspora.
This month Titica will embark on her first international tour with dates so far fixed for Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Very rarely, I would attend an event or participate in a situation for which I know little information, especially upon invitation. Yesterday, going to an event blindly paid off for me mentally and spiritually.
Check out my testimony in the video below. I talk about how I was invited to a "networking event" by a friend who really did not know what the event was about. Instead of a networking event for the unemployed, we entered into a forum discussion about transgenders in the workplace, transitioning and transformed.
Until last night, I would have quickly balked about such invitation since I can openly admit that I have not been open to socializing and associating with the transgender community. (By the way, this has been my preference, and my views are not uniformed with The Future Forward team.) Additionally, I have classified the transgendered community minimally to clubs, pageants, female impersonations, low-paying/less-skillful employment and the ball scene. Fortunately, my mind has opened and views has changed as I decided to check out what the symposium entailed. At the panel discussion, four transgendered men and women shared their stories of success, guilt, shame, stress and laughter as they transitioned from one sex to the other while they were in their executive positions. In fact, one of them manages accounts in excess of a billion dollars and transitioned during the height of her success. [She was born as a male.] Their stories wowed me as I would have never imagined people of the transgender community being successful outside of the GLBT and mainstream entertainment circuit.
I was more impressed by the message the last speaking panelist gave than the collective's transformation during employment. Though the forum was about fighting for rights and discussing the disparities of equality for transgenders in corporate America, the panelist spoke a message of empowerment and ownership of self. When people of ownership when people talking about being victims, I listen because solution brings progress where problem remain.
In fact, people [still] think that Blacks, gays and other groups cannot succeed in certain things. Who would have thought they would live through a Black man becoming President of the United States?
At that point, I knew that setting limitations on a group limits my perception of life. Everything is possible, and people are capable of accomplishing whatever their hearts desire. Even if we have never seen such a benchmark set for a demographic, one can ensure that someone will achieve that notoriety and pave the way for others someday.
Each of us have a bias toward a group or demographic. Yes, you do too. Think about the characteristics you associate with that group. Now, I challenge you to meet or find someone in that group that defies your classification of that group. You, too, will be more enlightened and open-minded as I have last night.
So don't know if you have gotten to the movies recently, however there are some great ones that I have checked out. You must see "Orphan" when I tell you that this orphan in this movie did everything but turn her new family loose, it is the truth. Get your butts out to the movies ASAP... Coming soon are a few new movies and I am highlighting Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All By Myself" starring Mary J. Blige and Taraji Henson it looks really good and Tyler Perry is really doing his thing at producing his stage plays into films I declare him as an honorary THE Future Member... Check out the trailer and let me know what you think...
Also Eve is going to be seen in a new film and word on the street is she will be dropping a new album very soon as well... UMMM Tambourine was very hot two years ago and I cannot wait to hear what tops that, can she do it? Only time will tell... As for the film Eve skates her way through Whip It, Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut starring Ellen Page (Juno) and Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live). Eve plays a roller derby girl named Rosa Sparks. Coming in October, until then check out the trailer here:
And last but not least you must see Mariah Carey's remix video to her hot new single "Obsessed" I know some of you hate it and there are always rumors about her, however I think the song is hot because she addressed the issues with her stalker, we all know who this rapper is and this man of THE Future thinks he is totally overrated. Personally a song for him was not worth her time, however I can imagine my own obsessed one in his place... Check out the Music Video with Gucci MAN, which I guess that's code for GOOD MAN, because I recently learned that Gucci means Good... Check out and and leave a comment if you think its GUCCI or NOT...
Congrats to MTV, Jalia who is representing the transgender community on Diddy's Making His Band reality series. Also revealed was America's Best Dance Crew first-ever transgender dance group, Vogue Evolution. Lets keep pushing our community toward the success we all deserve... Thanks MTV!!!
