It is male-chauvinistic industry, and there's still a long way to go for the female-centric genre to come to the fore.

People still make all sorts of assumptions about me. I've just gone past the point of caring.

I was almost on the verge of studying medicine. But then, I realised I would have to give up singing. That is when it dawned on me that I could have a career in music.

I personally think the male and female roles have changed dramatically in the past few decades. Men are no longer the breadwinners. Financial independence for a woman is a huge thing.

An election in which people have to wait 10 hours to vote, or in which black voters wait in the rain for hours, while white voters zip through polling places, is unworthy of the world's leading democracy.

Folks know that while I respect Barack Obama and do not cheap-shot the president, I am very skeptical of his big government, nanny-state philosophy.

I oppose the attempts of homosexual activists to treat homosexual activity as a civil right to be protected and promoted by the government.

My father was not in power when I started my political career, or when I fought my first election in 1996. Starting like any ordinary person, I reached out to people everywhere.