Up close with Denyque

DENYQUE’S world came to a halt three months ago when she almost lost her life giving birth to her daughter. Due to a serious pregnancy complication that causes severe blood loss following childbirth, the decision was taken by her medical team to remove her womb. After having a pretty smooth delivery with her previous pregnancy, she was surprised by this sudden turn of events, but in reflection, she said that she was never afraid. She knew, even when her life was at stake, that she was blessed beyond measure, and God was in complete control.

“Sometimes we want something so bad that we are not willing to give it up, and what I have learnt to do is relinquish this hold that I have on wanting to control the outcome,” she shared with All Woman while she set her daughter Dylann down for her afternoon nap.

“I used to pray for stuff and still want to attach myself to them. Now I’ve really learnt to pray about it, and then let it go and let God take control.”

But the grace with which this woman, who at one point wanted to have three children, could accept such a life-altering change was not born overnight. It took years of spiritual work and self-actualisation for Denyque Dontré Mullings, the strong-willed creative, to grow into the grounded and soulful mother, wife, and businesswoman that she is today. A significant part of her atonement took place in the last four years.

“I decided to take a break from the music industry because I felt as if I was being forced into a direction that I didn’t want to go into,” she said of her hiatus, which started to take effect after she stopped recording new music in 2016.

“I felt like I didn’t know myself well enough. I felt like I was going through a phase in my life where I just needed to take a couple steps back and just focus on what else life has in store for me.”

Though she didn’t record for much of 2016 to 2018, the songstress kept her career running in the background while she immersed herself in the new world of marriage and motherhood.

“I started doing music when I was about 19, and I took a break when I was 27. I think it was a necessary break,” she said in retrospect. “I had gotten married and had my first child, Connor, and that was such a beautiful experience. It felt like everything was just aligning and falling into place. When I decided to take a break, I started focusing on my spirituality more, and just on getting closer to God and listening to God and myself — self-awareness, self-maintenance, and self-love.”

But if we had spoken with Denyque prior to her burst into the spotlight, we would have met a bright-eyed teenager in her first year of university, still very unsure of the path that she wanted to take to achieve her many, many dreams.

“Upon graduating Belair [High School in Mandeville], it was either I went to the University of Technology [UTech] to study tourism management, or The University of the West Indies to pursue a career in media,” she said.

Having always been a lover of the arts and linguistics, Denyque was leaning towards a profession in media, but her father, who was very business-minded, could not see the benefit of a communications degree, so he encouraged her to go into tourism management instead. The headstrong creative excelled in her first year at UTech, then took a leave of absence to launch her music career.

“My main goal was to see if I could actually do something with this,” she reflected. “Then I realised that I had a gift, and blessings just started reaching me. Granted, there were challenges too, just like everything else, but I was great at so many other things that music would have been my platform to fulfil those other goals.”

Looking back at the decade of her life that she dedicated to building her music career, the singer has no regrets about choosing that path, as it led her to this point in her life where she knows she is meant to be.

“It’s been a lesson and a half. I’ve learnt so much about the industry. I’ve learned so much about myself. I’ve taken the downs as graciously as I take the ups, because that’s how you learn. That’s how you grow and build character,” she said positively.

It is this mindset and determination to build character that allowed her to pursue other things while doing media, including her dream of being a fashion designer, television host, and even competing in a national pageant along the way.

Now Denyque is counting her blessings and making the most of the time she gets to spend with her husband, Careem, and children, before her dreams take her out of the nest more often.

“It’s stressful sometimes, but I also have been lucky enough to be kind of a stay-at-home mom,” she said. “Although I work everyday, I’m not required to go into my jobs, so I have the flexibility to stay with the kids and do everything else. Sometimes it’s a challenge, but it’s worth it. I’m glad I have this opportunity to spend so much time with them now, until I have to get more ingrained in work.”

But while she is counting her blessings, Denyque is still hungrier than ever to see what more is left for her to achieve.

“I am beyond blessed and grateful to God every single day for the family I was born into, the family I inherited, and the family I helped to create,” she said. “But the biggest motivator I have is within myself…just knowing that I have not hit my pinnacle. I have not gotten to that mountain top where I know I am supposed to be at. I have hit some level areas on my journey, but I know those aren’t the top, so I must keep climbing. There are a lot of things that I haven’t done yet, and a lot of things that I haven’t experienced yet in my growth and my climb.”