Mikaelle Cartright has a voice that’s like tropical silk. The New York-born, singer-songwriter has a jazzy style that recalls the styles of singers like Anita Baker with a little hint of Shirley Bassey. How did she develop her jazzy style? What role do her parents play in her support system as a singer-songwriter? Read on to find out.

Kreyolicious: Your name is Mikaelle, no doubt stemming from the name Michael, which means Who Can Be Like God? What is the most extraordinary thing that’s happened to your life that has had you saying the same phrase?
Mikaelle Cartright: Correct, my name means “Who is like God”. My existence causes me to ask that constantly. My birth was a miracle. My mother almost lost me. She was placed on bed rest somewhere around the fourth month. The muscles of her uterus were giving out and the doctor said I was going to just fall out. The medication, some hormone treatment, was barely available and when Baby Doc fell, it was chaos. My mother was, thank God, able to leave and go have me in New York where much of her family still lived. She received the proper care and boom, there I came, healthy and obviously, alive.

Kreyolicious: What was your childhood like? Did you have musical tendencies crawling in early on?
Mikaelle Cartright: My childhood was filled with music. We were home-schooled, in English, in Haiti… At home we always had grandpa’s old record player going. From Bach, to Mozart, to Chopin, Schwarz, and Tchaikovsky there was always something classical on thanks to Big sis Jamie, who went on to study Opera. But when my brother Chris and I got a chance to pick, it would be instrumental jazz standards, or 60s pop tunes.

All if us loved music growing up. I was 10 when I sang a solo with my papa in church; 11 when I joined the choir. It all came very naturally. My dad played guitar and my mom led the choir. Totally natural, and we all got the bug. Did I mention my brother plays guitar and has written some of the most incredible rock songs ever?

Kreyolicious: Your parents have been supportive in your journey as a musical creative?
Mikaelle Cartright: Yah, mostly. So long as I am not raunchy or loose, they’re down. My mom has some unreasonable expectations, but that’s to be expected. She’s a pastor. I think my dad has given up on me. He doesn’t even know what I’m doing anymore.

Kreyolicious: You have such a jazzy style. What made you take up singing?
Mikaelle Cartright: Well everything I just said, plus, by the time I went to college, I had already started playing guitar…and while I was there I did a lot of open Mic nights. A friend of mine caught wind of that, and invited me to join a singers’ troupe planning shows for a local theater. I was with them almost two years. We did all kinds of styles of music, but the one that stuck most was the Jazz. Ever since 18 years old, I’ve been a fanatic. It changed everything about the music in me. It released everything you hear me doing today.

Kreyolicious: Were you taken by any singers growing up? What did you admire them?
Mikaelle Cartright: Shania Twain, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion and Toni Braxton, Bryan Adams, Boys II Men, Dru Hill, Luther Vandross and Usher. I grew up on them…They were there every night on Sweet FM. I wasn’t allowed to listen to secular music so I snuck a radio in my bed every night and would listen till 1, 2 even 3 am…no one ever knew why I was so tired…Their voices were iconic. I knew that if I could sing like them, I’d be really good.

Later on, I went more toward soft rock/alternative and soul, listening, in depth, to John Mayer, Coldplay and India Arie. Those three are the reason I write music and aspire to creating beautiful songs that will lift people’s spirits. After all, they were my emotional anchors for so many years.

Kreyolicious: As a woman and singer, when do you feel the most beautiful?
Mikaelle Cartright: When my voice is bangin’.

This concludes PART I of the interview with Mikaelle Cartright. Meanwhile…

Visit the singer’s Youtube Channel |

Singer-songwriter and guitarist Mikaelle Cartright was born in New York, and grew up in Haiti, and currently resides in New York. Her low-key jazzy style and her sensuous voice will have you believe that she took voice and singing lessons from an assortment of singing greats like Sarah Vaughan, Etta Jones, Nancy Harrow, and Dina Washington.

Kreyolicious: What if you could create a special board of singers to help guide you and advise you, who would you include, and why?
Mikaelle Cartright: Alicia Keys. I respect her as a person and I feel like she has stayed so true to herself. I want what she’s has, the way she has it. Eartha Kitt. She was so in control. I love her attitude and firmness. I’m a lot like that. You’d be surprised how rough I can be. She always found the right balance. Nina Simone, for all those reasons. Such an amazing sense of self. Pharell Williams. He is his own person. He’s branded himself so well. I want that. To be more than a singer. To be a household name. A brand.

Kreyolicious: What’s the latest with you? Where do you hope to take your career?
Mikaelle Cartright: I am letting myself loose of others expectations. The last couple years in New York have allowed me to find my voice with out the constant, “you need to do this or that” from Ayisyen I was dealing with back home. Sorry, but Ayisyen pa vle kite atis viv [Haitians don’t allow artists to thrive]. They think that they are going to tell the artist what to do instead of allowing what is within said artist to emerge. Since New York, I’ve tapped into what I really want to do. My cup overflowing with songs and ideas has slowly been poured out, creating space for a whole new set of creativity to take place. I’m almost done with an EP that with serve as a showcase of my many talents and whichever sound does best, will give me a better idea of where to aim for commercial success. Honestly, I like the simple things. The shows that require less. But hey, if people want loud and wild, guess what? I can do that too. I want to go far in music, write for films and TV shows, and make a name for myself as more than just a pretty face or voice.

Kreyolicious: Do you think that there’s going to be a time when music will be about everything but the music?
Mikaelle Cartright: Commercial music is most definitely already there. It’s a shame what’s happened to hip hop and RnB. That’s why I’m not aiming for the commercial music radar. Thankfully, there’s a million genres out there. I’ll be very happy to have a few thousand dedicated fans for the next fifteen years, over a stadium full every night for just a few years. There will always be music, just for music’s sake. That’s where we all started. The industry can’t shut that off.

Kreyolicious: What if you could handpick seven other women to create an album with? Who would you include?
Mikaelle Cartright: Emeline Michel, Ti Corn, Melissa Dauphin, Alicia Keys, Dobet Gnahore, Maria de Barros, Maya Azucena.

Did you miss PART I of the interview with singer Mikaelle Cartright? CLICK HERE to read it!