NOTE: If you'd like, you can listen to the songs as you read the bio. Just click on one of the purple highlighted songs to your left (Tracks 1,2,3 and 10). Feel free to check out the cd reviews at the very bottom of this page!
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ABOUT CEE CEE and HER CD:
Cee Cee Michaela pronounced(MICK-KAY-LA), is a native of Hickory, North Carolina and started singing in church as a little girl. At ten, she began classical voice lessons, by fourteen had a vocal range of four octaves and was singing in five languages. She graduated as a North Carolina Honors Scholar and was named Who's Who Among American High School Students. Cee Cee attended the North Carolina School of the Arts where she majored in Dance and Voice as a Terry Sanford Scholarship recipient. On a BCM Scholastic/Talent Scholarship Cee Cee continued her education at the Boston Conservatory of Music earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Musical Theater.
One early Bostonian morning around 5:00 a.m., she took the forty dollars that her mom had sent her to use for books, cut class, bought a $29.99 Greyhound ticket, arrived in New York, bought a bagel for $2.50, some juice for $1.50 and a BackStage paper for $1.75. She thumbed through the trades, spotted a new Broadway show called "Jelly's Last Jam", borrowed a pen from a bum, circled the ad, guzzled down the juice and arrived at the open call at 1:00 pm. Five hours and four hundred girls later Cee Cee called her mom yelling, "I can't go back to school...I'm Gregory Hines's sister, I'm in New York and besides I only have four dollars!" Her daughter wasn't crazy, just crazily driven and the rest is, as they say, herstory.
Cee Cee moved to New York and was cast in the role of Viola, Gregory Hines's sister, in Broadway's Jelly's Last Jam and appeared as Charlene on the ABC soap, All My Children. She went on to star in the Canadian run of Broadway's Once On this Island in Toronto where she was nominated for the Dora Mavor Moore Award (Canadian Tony) for Best Female in a Musical. Cee Cee also performed in the smash hit Smokey Joe's Cafe, in the role of Brenda, which ran on Broadway for five years. She had the lead, title role in Nomathemba (with Ladysmith Black Mambazo) performed at the Kennedy Center. For this performance, Cee Cee was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award for outstanding actress.
Cee Cee has appeared in the HBO film, Gia and feature film, Senseless. She guest starred on The Steve Harvey Show playing Emma Mae (dual characters), CBS's City of Angels, Chicago Hope, Promised Land and Fresh Prince of Bel Air. She had a recurring role on Sabrina, the Teenage Witch and is currently appearing in multiple episodes as Noreen on the Lifetime Television drama, Strong Medicine executive produced by Whoopi Goldberg.
As a series regular Cee Cee starred on the syndicated series Born Free which aired internationally and currently she is receiving many laughs as Yvonne, William's fiance'/the cop, on the UPN comedy, Girlfriends executive produced by Kelsey Grammer.
Cee Cee is a singer/songwriter and has released a new CD entitled Everybody's Talkin'. Her songs are diverse and the many colors of her musical style ring out loud and clear in a fusion of soul, jazz, folk and world. Her songs speak of freedom, happiness, spirtuality, and endurance. Her music is timeless and universal. Hey lyricism is smooth and poetic yet witty. Many of her songs have been featured on numerous television shows including UPN's Girlfriends, Fox's Party of Five, Time of Your Life, and CBS's Promised Land. Cee Cee made the decision to handle distribution of her CD through her own record label: Driven By A Vision Records (DBV).
Enthusiastic crowds here in Los Angeles have enjoyed Cee Cee's live performances with her 7-piece band called Lavender Soul, named after her favorite color and favorite kind of music. She has appeared at The Conga Room, The Temple Bar, The Martini Lounge, The Mint, The Knitting Factory, The Baked Potato, The Gig and The Highlands.
"You know I still have the pen that I borrowed from that bum...every one of my poems and songs were written with that pen. The day that it ran out of ink...I felt like I had run out of words." Judging from her collection of songs and poetry which continue to grow steadily, Cee Cee will never run out of words to say.
*CD NOTES: In the song entitled CORRUPT, the first verse is in French and the second verse is the English translation.
If you like Jill Scott, India Arie, Rachelle Farrelle, Nelly Furtado, Sade, Les Nubians, Oleta Adams, Miriam Makeba, Ella Fitzgerald, Koko Taylor, Tracy Chapmen and Tina Turner...if you can imagine that many people in one singer..believe it or not...that is what Everybody's Talkin' about! Cee Cee Michaela gives it her all!
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