From the West Coast of Africa, Liberia, hails the Liberian Queen, who goes by the name of De Licia.
She is a cool, calm and collective young woman, with a mindset of her own. She knows exactly what she wants and goes for it.
She is a Singer, Writer, Dj, Entrepreneur, Mentor, Feminist, Humanitarian and a Trend Setter.
Her quest on seeing women unite and support each other, started a long time while she was back home in Liberia.
She recorded the first ever “All Female” song in Liberia called “Told Y’all,” featuring seven other female artists.
The song talks about Girls Empowerment and how females can do and be anything they want to, and be a better version at it
On April 12, 2013 she flew to China when she got a six months contract, to come and work in the “Beijing government park” as a singer.
“This was a dream come true for me” she says.
I’ve always imagined myself performing on a bigger stage, seeing my name in shining lights, in different cities every night, hence; one of my favorite songs is “Billionaire” by Travie McCoy/Bruno Mars.
After the six months contract ended with the park, she got another contract with “SPI Entertainment,” to work in clubs and thus the glamorous club life began.
The club life was very interesting, as well as challenging, mostly as a Black Female Artist.
De Licia got to live the dream of traveling from city to city every night, “I used to write down the name of each city traveled to, till I got to 60, and I’m like; this is the life you signed up for, so I stopped!” she said.
Yes! she saw her name not only in shining lights but all on billboards, posters, banners etc:
Six months after, the contract with SPI Entertainment ended, and she decided to work alone, without any company.
This was very challenging as one mostly needed agents to get contracts.
In 2015, things started to take a different trend, as it went from good paid jobs, to under paid jobs, and than no jobs.
It became even more challenging as color became of importance and top priority.
As a young woman who sees no boundary and believes in working hard to make a change, and not caring about the views of others, she knew she had to survive, so she decided to switch up the game and took up a job as a gogo dancer(see pictures below), since getting a job as a singer was now becoming difficult.
She was the first Black Female gogo dancer to openly do the job and post pictures and videos without caring about what people thought lol because some friends were asking her “why are you doing that job?” and if you do it don’t post pics! hahaha she laughs, what mattered at the end of the day to me was I could renew my visa, and at the end of another month, pay my rent she said still laughing [Laugh][Laugh]
As the industry became more and more challenging, with less Black Female arts and her quest to put Black Girls on the map, De Licia decided to expand her horizon by adding on a long held dream which is Djing.
She took up a three months class, with a well renown DJ from Spain, who goes by the name of DemonD Dj.
After the three months, she got a contract at MUSE Club in Shangdong Province, Jiaozhou, where she worked for about six months, from November to April. She also worked at several other clubs: Club Dubai, 88 Club, SOHO, Queens Club, etc: just to name a few. And guess what? She is also the first Liberian Female Club Dj.
In November of 2016, she decided to start a group chat of Black Females in China, which would serve as a platform where they can be able to talk about their lives, the ups and downs of being a Black Girl in China, and give support to each other when necessary. This platform was also use as a medium, where they could talk about black excellence and how to embrace themselves as Black Queens; hence the name BQL(Black Queens League) with its Motto: Support. Empower. Embrace(SEE).
With this new idea she also decided to start her own brand thus the birth of her BQL clothing.
The BQL brand is geared towards printing of materials to be sold to help the less fortunate, “I grew up with school fees being paid by a scholarship fund”(CREDO and JJRSSA) she said. So far we have been fortunate to get the name out there.
Below are few pics and a video of Kings and Queens, who irrespective of their race or gender believe in this dream and have been supportive towards this initiative.
As the rate of getting a club job became more and more tedious, De Licia decided to focus on doing business since she already had an audience and followers, thus; De Licia LOOK started, with it’s focus on providing natural hair products, as many Black Queens now started to embrace their nappy kinky.
These products range from shampoos, conditioners, to natural and essential hair oils all imported from the USA.
Most times she had to be her own model to advertise her products.
As she strives for excellence in all she does, she would say “My Clients Satisfaction Is My Top Priority,” she always created a bond with her clients way beyond just purchasing a product.
Speaking to this talented Queen on how she gathers the strength to do all this she told Gossip Liberia “I can’t tell you how, but what keeps me going is God first; prayers, focus, persistence, the will to make a change in this world no matter how small it is, and the knowledge that there are people looking up to me so I can’t be a failure to myself, if not, I fail them all.”
I always try to keep it positive to the 110 degree. Choosing the good over the bad, and living while I’m alive.
You just don’t know whose life you are impacting by what you do.
“A lot of the time people come to me, to talk about their heartaches and want advice, believe me, I don’t even know how it happens but after we talk they always say they feel a whole lot better” she said with a smile.
Someone told me I need to start a talk show like the Ellen or Oprah show, and I’m looking into that cos I really love the connection it leaves behind.
I’m a good listener [Grin].
De Licia whose real name is Wally Alicia Koiwood recently started a YouTube channel called “De Licia Life N Travel” and also a Facebook page “De Licia TV,” promoting All Things Liberia(ATL)and she hopes to reach the public with a lot of positive contents, that will help change a life for the better.
In closing she says “I am an embodiment of a new meaning of life and my purpose is to find it.” So I guess I’m on a mission.
“Never let the fear of failing prevent you from knowing what you could really achieve”.
Also “hold fast to your dreams because they do come true.”
Thanks for giving me a platform to share my story.
And oh! Watch out for my online store and my return home very soon, can’t wait to implement all of these ideas back home to help build up our entertainment industry.
