Michelle Antoinette Wallen MBE (born 27 April 1969[1][2]), known professionally as Mica Paris (/ˈmiːʃə/ MEE-shə), is an English singer, presenter, and actress.
[3] This led to a collaboration with American soul singer Will Downing on a cover version of a classic "Where Is the Love", made famous by Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack in the early 1970s.
[5] This extended Paris' 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.
Paris also recorded with Anita Baker, Bonnie Raitt and Natalie Cole on the album Nelson Mandela: An International Tribute for a Free South Africa (1990), and provided the title track to Isaac Julien's Young Soul Rebels movie soundtrack the following year.
This followed by more collaboration work on album tracks with Guru on his Jazzmatazz II ("Looking Through Darkness" in 1995), Mark Morrison ("Tears For You" – 1996) and Maxwell ("Mantra" – 1996).
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).
[1] Paris 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.
Furthermore, she broadcast a two-part show, Purple Reign: The Prince Story, on BBC Radio 2 which covered the entirety of the American artist's controversial career and featured interviews with George Clinton, Chaka Khan and Jimmy Jam.
[1] She was also a narrator on an award-winning documentary featuring Diana Ross focusing on her European and international success rather than her megastar status in the states.
Other television presenting has followed with Paris being an expert judge on Gok Wan's Miss Naked Beauty for Channel 4 and ITV's CelebAir.
In 2007, she played the part of Amelia Walker, a fictitious American jazz singer, in At Bertram's Hotel, an episode of the ITV series Marple.
In February 2017, she stood in for Craig Charles on his Saturday night House Party, 10 pm to midnight, on BBC Radio 2 for two weeks.
On 14 December 2023, Paris was featured on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour promoting her new album and Sky Arts show, A Gospel Christmas, with her supporting singers.
Paris has designed a pillow-case for ByteNight a charity event organised to raise funds for the NCH and youth homelessness.
She is also currently supporting the "No Means No" anti-rape and gender equality campaign set up by the largest free local newspaper for English expats in Spain, EuroWeekly News.
[19] In 2003, Paris was presented with the Gold Badge Award by the Ivors Academy for her special contribution to the British entertainment industry.
Paris was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to music, entertainment and charity.