San Fernando isn’t even the capital of Trinidad and Tobago, a small island in a forgotten corner of the world where Marie Viona Lewis was born in the early summer of 1988. Growing up there in the 90s, kids were lucky if they learned about the latest trends or coolest music before it was already out of fashion on the mainland, to dream of international super stardom seemed as plausible to the people from her neighborhood as the resurrection of Christ in their own back yard.

Abandoning normalcy at an early age, Viona cast her first name aside and went by her middle name just in time for introductions at primary school. Vi’s father worked, like most men from San Fernando, in the oil refinery as a laborer and her mother – who possessed duel citizenship in Trinidad and The U.S. – was a flight attendant for Caribbean Airlines, leaving Viona and her younger brother and sister with her father for many days at a time as she traveled for her job. Things in the Lewis household were never quiet, for better or worse. If it wasn’t Viona’s singing with her brother Jon and sister Gabi on backing vocals, then it was her father’s yelling and often violent, destructive behavior. Alcoholism was something that seemed to spread throughout her entire family like a cancer, so common that it was barely recognized as problematic until its effects caused a hospital visit for her mother or permanent damage to the small, dingy two bedroom home that the family of five were cramped into.

Growing up with turmoil in her home life Viona tried to focus much of her energy on schoolwork and the programs she attended at their church, where she’d first begun to sing as just a five year old. The positive attention for her voice and stage presence that was earned from everyone, including her father whose approval she sought relentlessly as a child, was enough to truly make music her passion. A summer seminar at an arts camp in Port of Spain helped set Viona on the path of pursuing music. There she met the vocal coach who would help her to hone her skills throughout the next several years until not long after her 10th birthday when her family experienced major upheaval.

It was no secret that the relationship between her mother and father wasn’t a happy one, her father’s drinking had worsened to the point of near constant abuse, costing him jobs and squandering the family’s money one day at a time. Though the children were shielded from the worst of it they had at times witnessed their father’s abuse and lived in fear as his drinking turned to supplemental drug use until finally he just stopped coming home. It was rumored he was shacking up with another woman, a fellow addict who also saw fueling their high as a priority. It was difficult for Viona to imagine that things could get much lower than those days that followed her father’s departure, but she grew to appreciate that it is truly always darkest before the dawn.

No less than a year later Vi’s mother obtained a divorce and moved with her three children to Queens, New York, USA where her mother also lived. During the first few weeks there were six people living in Vi’s grandmother’s one bedroom apartment, but with hard work, dedication, and a new job working for Delta Airlines the small family were able to get a place of their own and truly start over. It was a terrifying and exhilarating time for all three siblings who struggled with the culture shock of an urban jungle where no one could understand their accents, but from the moment it happened Viona viewed the move as God influencing fate toward her dreams. She was able to attend a special performing arts middle school and entered in talent competitions almost every weekend to help her mother save to purchase her daughter a piano.

Though competition was fierce, Viona landed a spot in LaGuardia Arts High School in Manhattan the same year she obtained legal U.S. Citizenship through her mother. It was through a school performance that she got her initial big break, performing as a 14 year old in a showcase that was seen by a small record company A&R guy whose niece was also performing in the show. Impressed most of all by Viona's stage presence and unique sound he assisted her in getting signed to a production company and in the late fall of 2003 Vi began recording demos on weekends and during breaks in school. After meeting and providing vocals on a few songs for a Caribbean songwriting team, Viona’s demo was finished and her newly signed manager spent the bettr part of 2004 shopping it around to various labels until – much to Vi’s shock and awe – Def Jam’s dynamic duo of Jay Z and LA Reid expressed an interest.

Even to this day Vi describes auditioning for Jay Z as one of the most defining yet natural moments of her life. Their relationship had an ease from the beginning that made any distrust between them disappear almost instantly to the point where even ten years later he is still one of the very few people that she will listen to without question when advice is given.

The transition from sophomore in high school to world wide pop star seemed to happen almost overnight, from a 16 year old singing in malls to a 26 year old selling out arenas and doing fashion shoots in nipple pasties, to Vi it all happened in the blink of an eye. She struggles often to find a centered sense of self in the chaos and as a result has been known to make more than a few immature blunders throughout her career. The way she grew up coupled with her current success has created a hard exterior shell that is difficult to penetrate – taking care of her family is her highest order of business and as a result money is something that she still chases with the ferocity of a hungry animal. She can be brutally honest and crass with those who she feels have not yet earned her respect, but is loyal to the highest order to people who she knows would have her back when she needs it.

Over ten years in the spotlight have seen her suffer a lot of ups and downs, hits and flops, bad relationships, media spats, temper tantrums and outrageous rumors but still she maintains an image as something of an enigma to the world at large and that’s how she likes it; no one can quite pin her down that way.