Tamia: bouncing back after pregnancy - African american singer

Ebony, Oct, 2003 by Zondra Hughes

MOTHERHOOD has a way of changing everything for everyday career women, but when you're a celebrity, bouncing back from maternity leave and getting back into the limelight can be intense.

Take a walk in Tamia's shoes: For the past 18 months, the recording artist has been spending quality time with her husband (professional basketball superstar Grant Hill) and their frisky toddler while re-launching her singing career, reducing her weight by a whopping 55 pounds, and revisiting her past in a public search for the father she never knew.

Tamia's quite adept at multitasking and says that motherhood has given her a newfound sense of control.

"There's a strong confidence that you have in yourself after you've had a baby," she says while glancing down at her 18-month-old daughter, Myla. "You feel like you're the woman because you've created life, and now you're responsible for someone else."

But there are some days when it's a challenge for Tamia to get herself and her baby picture-ready for the public.

"Did you see how long it took for me to get both of us ready today?" she laughs. "This is hard sometimes."

Myla Grace Hill may not be ready to get going exactly when mommy wants her to, but her entrance into her parents' lives was perfect timing. Tamia had been married to Grant for two years when she became pregnant. At the time, she was between projects and he had suffered a career-threatening ankle injury.

"It's been tough; for the last three years my husband has been injured, and for the last two he's literally been on crutches, so it's been really difficult for him," Tamia says. "And when we had Myla it was perfect timing because it kind of made us think that in the midst of all this drama, we have a beautiful child."

Tamia revels in seeing Myla play around with her dad.

"She looks exactly like him, but most people say that she acts like me, because she's feisty and playful," she says. "His mom says she looks like Grant in a dress!"

Watching Myla interact with her father has made Tamia want to find her own biological father.

Tamia's fair, freckled face is the result of her biracial roots--her mother, Barbara, is Black, and her biological father is White. The mother gave birth to Tamia when she was 17 years old, and raised her daughter in the projects of Ontario, Canada, along with Tamia's three younger brothers, Tiras, Tajhee and Trajan.

Despite all that she has now, Tamia says not having a relationship with her biological dad has produced a void in her life.

"I was always happy growing up, but I realize now there are some things missing because of my situation. Now that I have a child, I know the importance of having a father in the household."

During her childhood, Tamia's love for music helped to fill that void.

At the age of 6, when many of her peers were playing jump rope and "baking" mud pies, Tamia was onstage singing gospel at the local church, honing her musical skills.

Soon, Tamia was performing on the local talent show circuit, entering singing contests and volunteering at local theater productions in search of stardom. And the word got out quickly: Wherever there was a stage, there was little Tamia Washington, commanding it, front and center.

By the early '90s Tamia was winning coveted Canadian music awards, which eventually caught the attention of music producer Quincy Jones. Jones invited Tamia to appear on his Q's Jook Joint album, and later the offers started to roll in. Within a few short years, Tamia collaborated with many of R&B's best-known performers, including Babyface, Gladys Knight and Chaka Khan.

Four Grammy nominations and three solo projects later, Tamia has found a solid following from her fans, and she used her post-pragnancy album, Still, to reconnect with them.

Tamia's ability to connect with fans via her in-your-face Sistergirl realness has cemented her staying power in an industry littered with too many has-beens, wanna-bes and one-hit-wonders.

But it's her honesty that really strikes a chord. She's not afraid to let you know that she, just like many other young Black mothers in the world, had to learn how