Michelle Antoinette Wallen, MBE (born 27 April 1969), known professionally as Mica Paris, is a British singer, presenter, broadcaster and actor. She was born in Islington in North London, and moved to Brockley, South London, when she was nine
Mica grew up singing in her grandparents' church, and by her mid-teens was making regular appearances with The Spirit Of Watts gospel choir, with whom she featured on the 1985 EP Gospel Joy. At the age of seventeen, she became a backing vocalist with the UK band Hollywood Beyond. Mica appeared on their album, “If” in 1985
Mica Paris is one of the UK’s finest and most respected singers with a long career of hit singles and albums marking her out as the undisputed British Queen Of Soul
Signed to the 4th & Broadway label on Island Records at the age of eighteen, the range, power, soul and deep emotion in Mica’s singing voice made an immediate impact on the UK music scene in August 1988 when she released her debut album, the platinum selling “So Good”. The album included her first Top 10 hit “My One Temptation” which peaked at #7 in the UK charts as well as a collaboration with jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine on “Like Dreamers Do” and “Breathe Life into Me”, both Top 30 UK hits. This was followed by a duet with US soul singer Will Downing on the classic Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway song “Where Is The Love” which broke the UK Top 20
The follow up album ”Contribution” was released in October 1990, again on the 4th & Broadway label. This extended Mica’s soul and gospel influences to bring in hip-hop and house music and featured the track "If I Love U 2 Nite”, written by Prince and recorded at his Paisley Park studios. With Omar, a classically trained musician, Mica recorded "I Should've Known Better" in 1990. It was issued on the B side to "South Of The River" and later re-recorded for inclusion on 1998’s “Black Angel” album
Mica performed “Blowin’ In The Wind” with Anita Baker, Bonnie Raitt and Natalie Cole at the ‘Nelson Mandela: An International Tribute For A Free South Africa’ event at Wembley Stadium on 16th April 1990, held two months after Mandela’s release from prison in South Africa. Mica provided the title track to Isaac Julien’s “Young Soul Rebels” film soundtrack the following year. She also worked with the saxophonist Courtney Pine again on "Redemption Song" (1992); the Stereo MC’s on "Don't Let Up" (1992; and Bobby Womack on "I Wish I'd Never Met You" (1991)
Before the release of her third album in 1993, Mica took to the theatre stage for the first time starring in two West End shows, ‘Mama I Want To Sing’ and ‘Sweet Lorraine’
Mica’s third album “Whisper A Prayer” was released in June 1993 on 4th & Broadway and included the singles "I Never Felt Like This Before" and "I Wanna Hold On To You", as well as "You Put A Move On My Heart" which was later recorded by Tamia in 1995 on Quincy Jones’s “Q Jook Joint” album. This was followed by further collaboration work on music with Guru on his “Jazzmatazz: The New Reality” album ("Looking Through Darkness", 1995); Mark Morrison ("Tears For You", 1996) and Maxwell ("Mantra", 1996)
Mica released her fourth album “Black Angel” on EMI’s Chrysalis label in August 1998. It contained a cover version of U2’s “One", and a duet with James Ingram, “Love’s Gone”. “Black Angel” produced two more singles in "Stay" and 'Carefree". More collaborations followed with Omar ("Confection", 1994); Max Beesley ("High Vibes", 1994); Dubversive ("Police & Thieves",1998); the “Mobo All Stars” compilation album in 1998; Mister Exe ("One Million Smiles", 1998); Prince ("Just My Imagination", 2000); and Boy George ("I Could Be Someone", 2000). A collaboration with David Gilmour and Jools Holland on the Screamin’ Jay Hawkins track "I Put A Spell On You” followed in 2001. The trio have regrouped on several occasions to perform the song
Two years later, Mica performed on the title track of the Walt Disney / Touchstone Pictures soundtrack for High Heels And Low Lifes, which was later included on the soundtrack compilation album in 2001. In 2003, Mica released the Moby sampling "Heart" with Seraphim Suite. She contributed vocals to the track "I Don't Understand" on Milk & Sugar’s album “Housemusic.De”. 2004 saw Mica feature as a guest on The New Inspirational Choir's album “Inspirations” along with Keisha White and Jocelyn Brown. In October 2004, Mica also took part in the UK tour of the stage play ‘The Vagina Monologues’
In 2005, Mica released the album “If You Could Love Me” on Wounded Bird Records, featuring backing from the Brecker Brothers on the title track, with executive producer Andreas Neumann and producer Bernard Grobman. Also in 2005, she released the album “Soul Classics”, with executive producers Rick Blaskey and Andreas Neumann. Mica collaborated with Lemar on the track "Can't You See" on his album “The Truth About Love” in 2006, and in February 2008, she released the duet "Secret Lovers" with Alexander O’Neal. This was followed by a residency at the Indigo 02
In June 2009, she released her sixth studio album “Born Again” as an independently distributed artist. She embarked on a nationwide tour, which included dates at the Jazz Cafe in February 2009, to showcase the material. The album was produced by Brian Rawling with James Morrison contributing Mica’s first single "Baby Come Back Now". The second single, "The Hardest Thing", was remixed by Stonebridge, Almighty and 2Darc. The title track "Born Again" was the final single released from the album
At this point in her career, Mica turned her talents back to London’s West End. An incredible live performer, she stole the show at the Royal Albert Hall’s All Star Tribute to Dusty Springfield concert in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support on 5th May 2011. This was followed by two long runs in theatre shows with the UK tour of the musical ‘Love Me Tender’ in the summer of 2015 and more recently for eighteen months through to 2020, the lead role of Miss Sherman in the London West End production of ‘Fame’ to great acclaim and rave reviews
In between these two runs in the theatre Mica recorded a two-track single featuring “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye” and “Imagine My Frustration” in honour of Ella Fitzgerald with the Guy Barker Orchestra in 2017 followed by a series of sell out concerts later that year
In August 2020, BBC4 broadcast a special one-off documentary titled ‘Gospel According To Mica – The Story Of Gospel Music In Six Songs’. Straight from completing her run in ‘Fame’ at the Peacock Theatre, Mica had flown out to the US to film the documentary earlier that year. Presented by Mica as her own personal journey, the programme charted the history of gospel music through ground-breaking songs from “Amazing Grace” to Stormzy’s “Blinded By Your Grace Part II” going back and revisiting the origins of the songs and finding out why some of her contemporaries have returned to their gospel roots. The documentary inspired Mica to record her first album in over ten years once signed to Warner Music’s eastwest label and was recorded within a few weeks, with production by Brian Rawlings at his studio and the British Grove Studios where the contribution of the Soul Sanctuary Choir was recorded. Preceded by the new original song “Mamma Said”, inspired by Mica’s grandmother who first encouraged her to sing in church, and the Labi Siffre song “(Something Inside) So Strong”, the album titled “Gospel” was released on 4th December 2020 to critical acclaim across the board and #1 in the UK R&B Album charts. The album also features another new original song “The Struggle”, telling the story of Mica’s meeting with Gladys Knight, as well as spellbinding versions of Rag ‘N’ Bone Man’s “Human”; John Newton’s hymn “Amazing Grace”; Foreigner’s “I Want To Know What Love Is”; and U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”