The road to Miss World: The heat is on but she’s ready

Written By: Kayra Williams on Sep 23rd, 2010

Aiasha Gustave is counting down the days to China! (photo by Rick Wayne)

The Miss World Pageant is the name and hustle and bustle is the game. With just over one month until the grand televised event on October 30, and much less time before St Lucia’s representative Aiasha Gustave leaves the island for China, (on September 28) the 17-year-old shows no signs of slowing down preparations for one of the biggest moments of her life.
Aiasha, soon to be 18, on October 6 to be exact, came to the STAR offices last week straight out of an intensive workout session. Aiasha appeared calm and collected on the surface but revealed that the experience was still surreal.
“Everything is just happening so fast,” she said smiling. “It’s like one, then on to the next one!”
With less than one week left until her China trip, Aiasha said she was pretty relaxed.
“Before I’d be like, ‘oh my gosh’ when I had to make these appearances but now that I’ve done so many, going here and there every day, it’s become natural. I just have to be myself, so I’ve become comfortable with it.”
After carnival 2010 Aiasha released her single, I Only Have Eyes For You, an adaptation of the song by the Flamingoes hit of the 50s, with a catchy Caribbean twist. Listening to the song it’s impossible not to catch the Reggae drift and fall in love with the lyrics and melody that are just as infectious as Aiasha’s personality.
The unofficial video of Aiasha’s song can be accessed though Youtube, or through Aiasha’s Facebook fan page, ‘Miss St Lucia Aiasha Tierra Rebecca Gustave for Miss World.’ Aiasha’s fairly new single takes listeners from the opening lines: “The other day a boy tell me girl you look pretty, precious like a diamond… he wanna take me to his world on a rendezvous around the island. I tell the boy no oh oh, you cah take me for your pappy show oh oh, I don’t want no foolish boy, want a real man in my world” to the familiar, “because I only have eyes for you” chorus.
Aiasha confessed that she was in love with ‘old time tunes,’ and that was what led her and her producers at 758 Studios to her new single.
“I’d been working with 758 Studios and they wanted me to release a song in St Lucia after carnival. I was like Ace, just make a beat for me, that Reggae beat and I’ll do an old time track on the beat. He made it and then I told him I wanted to do I Only Have Eyes For You. We sat in his house for three to four hours and came up with a song instantly and I loved it! We got the rights from the Flamingoes and that’s how the song came about.”
When asked whether she would incorporate singing in her presentation for the upcoming Miss World pageant Aiasha said she would, but she was not going to sing her recently released track.
“We’re looking for something perhaps more cabaret style that the audience can relate to,” she said. “It’s likely going to be a cover. I have another song I haven’t released in St Lucia yet that I might do, but I might do something more familiar. Right now I am just focused on the pageant. Time is counting down, pace is picking up, the heat is getting hot [laughs] but I’m ready!”