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APRIL 2013 -
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21
igi is surprisingly
cool to work with
it: she moved nat-
urally and even
danced during the
photo-shoot. She
followed and col-
laborated all the time a she was working
with our photographer Lucy Lencinas, in
a perfect symbiosis between photographer
and model
In your own words, who is Gigi?
It is difficult to sum up who I am in a few
sentences. Like all people, I am many
things. Moreover, I show different sides
of myself depending on who I am with.
In addition, when I am alone, I am a very
different person than when I am with
others. Many people define themselves
by what they “do”. I do not really define
myself that way but at the same time, I do
believe the things I am passionate about
are huge aspects of who I am. I am a
singer. I started training classically when I
was 13 yrs old and continued training un-
til I was 18. Therefore, I have an operatic
background, which is helpful in singing
all types of music. I did local musical
theater productions from the ages of 10-
19. I wrote my first song at 14 but did not
start to take myself seriously as a song-
writer until my late teens/early twenties.
That became my biggest passion although
I continued to perform “cover” songs of
other people’s work. My first solo was at
the age of 10 in church and as I got older,
I performed more & more. I am from
Yonkers, NY and I performed all over
Yonkers, once at the request of the mayor.
I was very well known for my singing.
Then I branched out & began perform-
ing in Manhattan as well, for all types
of venues. In my early twenties I signed
with an independent record label(they
no longer exist) and recorded a 2 song
demo of my own work(one of the songs
was also remixed as a dance song in Italy
& that was also on the CD though aside
from them using my vocals, I had nothing
to do with it). Eventually when the label
fell through, one of the men who had been
a part of it approached me, and he became
my manager. I was performing all over
venues in NYC regularly for years at this
point. My manager & I eventually parted
ways as well but I continued to work with
another person from the label on writing
and recording my music and we would
perform shows together. When I became
pregnant and after having my daughter, I
slowed down with my music. It was also
at that time I started a writing class for
memoir writing and shifted my passion to
working on a memoir (three classes later.
I am still working on it but am in the last
stages). However, I still would perform
when asked & had had several of my
songs on movie soundtracks, including
the soundtrack of an HBO documentary. I
have also started writing for other artists
as well. Last year I wrote and recorded
two songs for another artist’s album and
it went better than expected. He wants me
to write & sing more songs on his next
album. In addition, I found a new writing/
recording partner and continue to produce
new material (you can hear my songs at
gigi-marie.com).
Now I am more focused on my writing
than music but I consider both my main
passions. I also act and have for many
years as well. I have been in two full-
length movies with small roles and one
short film where I was the female lead. I
also was featured as a dancer in a friend’s
video (the same friend that I started writ-
ing and recording for). You can see the
video on my web site as well. Oh and I
have worked as a “session singer” which
just means I was hired to sing a song in a
studio that was written by another artist.
That song is on a compilation CD w/
other artists.
Therefore, those are all things, which I
have done, which help define me but of
course are not all of me. I am also, as I
mentioned, a mother. I have many friends
and appear to be very outgoing and extro-
verted. Nevertheless, in reality I consider
myself a very shy, introverted person. I
feel that few people know the “real me.”
It is easier for me to show myself through
my writing, that is where I feel who I am
comes through the most.
When did you start modeling?
I started modeling at the age of 12. I was
actually just telling a makeup artist the
other day for a shoot I was doing how