Nestor Alexander Haddaway was born in Trinidad and Tobago in 1965 and had a childhood worthy of a biography. Son of a nurse and a marine biologist, he settled in Germany at a very young age after his parents divorced. He later immigrated to the United States with his mother at the age of 9 and lived between Chicago and Washington. He learned to play the trumpet after becoming a fan of Louis Armstrong, grew up listening to records by Led Zeppelin, Journey and Foreigner, and then joined the US Navy. "If you were someone who didn't know what to do with your life , Marina was the place to go," he recalls in James Arena's '90s book Dance-Pop Stars: 29 Hit Makers Discuss Their Careers.
“I learned a lot of things that I would never have discovered in a normal workplace, but after four or five years I realized that I had become something of a robot. So I left it."
He enrolled in medicine, during which time he returned to music. He formed his first band at age 22, but his experience didn't last long. "I never felt completely free in America," he said. “I think it is due to our multicultural genes. Back then, if you were a black singer, you had to do R&B or hip-hop. "No one saw you as a pop artist."
Their most recent album from 2011 is Gotta Be. She explores her role as an R&B singer on Spotify. But nothing beats What Is Love, which has had 586 million streams on Spotify over the years. The song has been given new life through appearances in commercials, films and remixes.
The best-known song is a selection of Eminem and Lil Wayne's "Without Love," recorded in 2010. At age 58, Haddaway finally embraced electro-pop anthems. She told journalist James Arena: “'What Is Love' is a blessing. I'll tell you why." “If it wasn't for the song, I would have been a local artist or majored in political science or law. “That's why I'm so grateful for 'What Is Love?'"
