Candela Vaccines D Place

Candice “Candela Infiniti” Lela is no stranger to the creative world.

Over her many years in the business, she has seamlessly shifted between fashion, film and music. Candela is known for her work on the 2010 docudrama Positive and Pregnant, which she produced and her sister, Stacy Lela, directed. She has also worked at a credit union and insurance company.

In yet another transition, Candela Infiniti recently released three singles with the most recent being Vaccine D'Place.

The song was written in July and premiered on August 1. It was done by herself and Emmerson “Wiz Genius” George.

Truthfully, she said to Newsday, there are those who hate the song and those who love it.

But the song’s purpose is two-fold: it encourages people to get vaccinated while it also paints a picture of what a post pandemic future might look like in Trinidad and Tobago.

She said the song is also aiming to help children to get over their fear of being vaccinated.

“I started off just wanting to give the children that positive message and that hope.”

The song tells the youth not to be afraid of the covid19 vaccine as it is needed to go back to school and needed to have access to a number of social services.

“The young ones who know they have to face it to face their future, they are the ones who are more scared and we are not even asking their opinion,” she said.

She added that some of the lyrics like, “take off your mask and wave it,” expresses the “pull and tug” of the pandemic.

Asked if she felt it was irresponsible to ask people to take off their masks and wave it, Candela said,“We were imagining that future. The song is futuristic in that way in that we want to see beyond this mask day…”

She said while no one is sure when that day would come but that is the moment the song celebrates.

The Arima singer/songwriter is proud of her mixed heritage which allows her to identify with all walks of life, she said. This is also reflected in her music and she hopes to release a bachata-styled album soon.

Her journey into the creative began at age14. While she worked in fashion and film, and in the business of music, she always wanted to sing but was uncertain about her voice.

She said the name Candela came about from her meeting with the late international music impresario Christian Carbaza, whom she credits for getting her into the creative world. She worked with him as his artiste and repertoire agent.

When she left school, she modelled with designer Claudia Pegus and that was where she met Carbaza who gave her the name based on a song he wrote in the 80s.

Candela Infiniti also entered the Miss Trinidad and Tobago pageant but she never made it to the top 12. While this was heartbreaking for her, it taught her many lessons in understanding how to “really be my higher self: “To become who I have to be to achieve my dreams.”

It also made her more aggressive toward her goals.

After the success of Positive and Pregnant, Candela would work on at least four productions per year until in 2020, there was none. It was that which sent her into music again.

“In 2019, I had a sense something was going to happen and I knew I had to diversify my career into creativity more.”

When the pandemic year hit, Candela Infiniti was also at a place in life where she felt free and that she could truly find her creative space.

Through her collaboration and work with Wiz Genius she wrote and released her first song called No Lockdown followed by Pop Island. Vaccine D'Place follows Pop Island.

She and Wiz Genius also founded the band WMG Infiniti and whose style is described as a “world music fusion of soca, dancehall and island pop.”

The band features artistes such as Sure Star, Charli Griffith, Empress Smooth, Sly Boss, David Walker, K Press, Anarchiii, GYT -Jahma Paddie, Shredda Don, Pay Pay Dada, Blu Steel and Psymon,Tamana Empire- Smoothes and Solo.

Not only does she want to create music but she also wants to work in the business of music as well. She is the president of Infiniti Publishing TT which trades as WMG Infiniti Music Pub.

It is her hope, through the company, to further develop TT’s music industry but to also educate artistes more on digital rights (according to digitalguardian.com a way to protect copyrights for digital media) and mechanical royalties (according to soundchart.com “royalties that are generated each time a musical composition is reproduced, whether physically or digitally via on-demand streaming or download-to-own services”).

For the past year, she worked as a publisher and is now recognised by the Copyright Music Organisation of TT (COTT).

No matter what she does, there is one line that takes her through life and that is, “Believe in yourself, your dreams will come true."

She also sees the music industry being a top earner for TT going forward.

For her, the pandemic has given rise to the creative class.

“If you’re not in the essential realm and you’re at home, it forces people who were not creative before to become more creative, and the ones who were always creative to continue expanding on their talents.”