“I want to shine a light into people’s lives,” says 26-year-old singer/songwriter Andrea Rivera.

Ms Rivera, who started singing semi-professionally ten years ago with local band the Heat, is currently working on her debut album, Musical Love Affair, which will be released in a few months.

Although Cayman’s musical chart-topping band the iZ have been helping her produce the album and have even taken a hand in writing some of the material, Ms Rivera has written most of the songs herself.

“The music on the album is going to be varied,” Ms Rivera says. “There’s going to be Caribbean pop, reggae and I do have a bit of dance music as well,” she said.

“Most of my songs are from personal experiences or experiences my friends have told me about from situations they have had in their life. I definitely like to write songs that have a meaning and purpose, hopefully to inspire and bring hope into people’s lives. I hope to make an impact with my music,” she said.

Ms Rivera also believes that she is an inspiration because of her positive outlook on life, a sentiment expressed in ‘I’m a Diva,’ a song written especially for Ms Rivera by iZ member Lonnie Love.

“My concept of being a diva doesn’t necessarily involve having material things, or being rich and fabulous. It can be that, but it’s also just about your personality – being very confident, being very sure of who you are as a person. And that’s who I feel that I am. When I hit the stage that’s when I feel that I come to life. I feel like I’m actually living,’” she said.

“I certainly feel that you should look upon life as a journey, and anything is possible really. I am a dreamer and I do believe that you can change lives, once you’re a more positive person you can definitely make a difference to someone’s life,” Ms Rivera added.

“Recently I’ve found that the music in the industry is getting a little dark – I don’t mean dark as in ‘bad’ but I hope to bring more light to my music.”

Ms Rivera has loved singing as long as she can remember.

“I had a passion for music from the age of four,” she said. “I sang pretty much anything but my biggest influences as a child would have been Michael Jackson and Bob Marley. The most wonderful experience I’ve ever had so far was performing at the Jazz Fest 2009 when I opened for Alicia Keys. I performed with a 10-piece band.

“The new album is all about Andrea’s love affair with music, but also about her life experiences.”

The track ‘Are You a Real Man’, is a one-drop reggae number which gives a twist to the traditional definition of a tough macho-man. Ms Rivera feels that other qualities are more important.

“It has to do with some women’s experiences: It’s maybe about a single parent and the father is not taking on his responsibilities as a father, or possibly it’s about abuse too. My definition of a man is someone who knows how to treat a woman right,” Andrea added.