D’Angel ready for SAINT stage

Dancehall's first lady, D'Angel, is eager to perform her newly released female empowerment track, Pick The Man, before a live audience this Sunday.

The Stronger hitmaker is the headline act at SAINT International's Fashion Face of the Caribbean and Avant Garde Designer of the Year competitions at AC Hotel Kingston.

"Lights, camera, action has always been my thing," declared the always spirited deejay. "I am always eager to perform any one of my songs on any platform, but when I can introduce a new song and it gets a great response, it's always a plus, and Pick the Man is one of those songs, so yes, I'm excited to see the man who gets picked this Sunday," D'Angel said.

Her performance will follow the eagerly awaited Fashion Face of the Caribbean competition in which 85 model hopefuls will hope to land lucrative contracts with top agencies in the fashion capitals of Paris, New York, Milan and London. In addition, 15 Jamaican fashion innovators will be vying for the title of Avant Garde Designer.

D'Angel, who is no stranger to SAINT stages, noted that her first brush with fame came as a fashion model two decades earlier.

"My modelling career, which is my first love, was short-lived because I ended up pursuing music," she explained.

Long before the steamy music videos and high-energy stage performances, the entertainer, whose given name is Michelle Downer, blazed an impressive path strutting the catwalks at New York Fashion Week.

"I had also entered the Barbizon high fashion model competition in Philadelphia in 2002 and placed second among 350 white contestants. I was the only black competitor and that remains a major milestone for me," she recalled.

And, though she might have put a once promising go at international modelling in park, D'Angel's love of all things fashionable continues unabated.

"Fashion is a major part of my personality, if I don't look good, I don't feel good," she said, adding that her favourite Jamaican designers are Pebbles King and Keneea Linton, while she gave the nod to Oscar de la Renta and Versus by Versace as her preferred international luxury labels.