{"id":485683,"date":"2026-05-15T08:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/485683\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T08:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T08:24:10","slug":"i-had-to-start-living-for-me-suzette-charles-on-winning-miss-america-confronting-bill-cosby-and-releasing-her-debut-album-33-years-late-pop-and-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/485683\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I had to start living for me\u2019: Suzette Charles on winning Miss America, confronting Bill Cosby and releasing her debut album 33 years late | Pop and rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018I can\u2019t believe this is actually happening!\u201d Suzette Charles says on a video call. At 63, she is about to release her self-titled debut album 33 years later than she had hoped, and her disbelief is understandable. Crowned the first biracial Miss America in 1984, aged 20, in controversial circumstances, Charles went on to suffer a lifetime of adversity. She faced a distressing tour with Bill Cosby<\/a> and mistreatment by record labels, and her debut album was shelved when her songwriters Stock Aitken Waterman (SAW) \u2013 who had made huge hits for Kylie Minogue, Rick Astley and more \u2013 split up. Then came a decades-long marriage that seemed to end her artistic career altogether. \u201cYou can\u2019t make this stuff up,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But Charles has reunited with Mike Stock to finally finish the most emotional of projects, her appropriately self-titled debut. \u201cI love the way the album\u2019s turned out,\u201d Stock says. \u201cI\u2019ve worked with Paul McCartney, Donna Summer, Cliff Richard \u2013 as a singer, I\u2019d put Suzette in that bracket.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles in 1984, the year she won Miss America. Photograph: ABC Photo Archives\/Disney General Entertainment Content\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Charles was a performing arts school kid from Philadelphia: \u201cI sang everywhere, anywhere,\u201d she says. From the age of nine, she starred in commercials for Colgate and Coca-Cola and appeared on Sesame Street and the Morgan Freeman-starring kids\u2019 TV series The Electric Company. At 15, she sang a song on the soundtrack to the film version of Hair, and narrowly missed out on the role of Coco Hernandez in Fame<\/a> to Irene Cara. They shared a manager, who allegedly pushed for Cara to have the part. Charles smiles wryly: \u201cThat was a taste of showbusiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mother encouraged her to compete in Miss America 1984. Others warned Charles against it \u2013 \u201cdon\u2019t even go near that, that\u2019s going to stigmatise you\u201d \u2013 but she competed in the final as Miss New Jersey, her parents\u2019 home state. At the ceremony, amid underhand tactics among some contestants \u2013 \u201cthey\u2019d try to poke a hole in your gown or \u2018accidentally\u2019 spill Coca-Cola on your dress\u201d \u2013 Charles sang Barbra Streisand\u2019s Kiss Me in the Rain. She came first runner-up, losing to Vanessa Williams<\/a>. \u201cI was shocked, because I thought my performance was stellar.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1993, the year Charles first collaborated with Stock Aitken Waterman. Photograph: Simon Fowler<\/p>\n

But 10 months later, Williams \u2013 who now has a highly successful music and acting career \u2013 was forced to resign her title after Penthouse magazine published a previous naked photoshoot. Charles says that all contestants had signed a contract stating there was nothing in their past that would \u201cembarrass\u201d the organisers, such as having an abortion. \u201cIt was considered a Miss Goody Two-Shoes event. Everybody signed it. [Williams] 100% knew she did photos that could come out to haunt her.\u201d But Charles doesn\u2019t think the pageant organisers\u2019 reaction was justifiable, \u201cbecause it was so many months later\u201d. Charles was subsequently crowned winner: \u201cA bittersweet acceptance,\u201d she says. She agrees with critics who feel the enduring Miss America contest is a relic. \u201cThe initial plan was to empower women, but we\u2019re in a different phase. I think it\u2019s probably time to say goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n

The high-profile pageant win, coupled with her performing arts chops, got Charles signed up to sing in a cabaret-style show supporting Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr and Stevie Wonder on tour. The latter would ask her opinion on new songs, once ringing her in the small hours to sing I Just Called to Say I Love You down the phone. Charles told him his future mega-hit was too simplistic: \u201cStevie, you wrote Songs in the Key of Life!\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Cosby also invited Charles to sing on tour as a supporting act to his standup comedy routines, after she had been offered a role as his daughter in the about-to-be-launched sitcom The Cosby Show. Even back then, decades before he was convicted for aggravated indecent assault, rumours of Cosby\u2019s vile behaviour were rife. \u201cMy father called Bill Cosby and said, \u2018I understand you have a reputation. I\u2019m Italian \u2013 you touch her, you\u2019re going to deal with me.\u2019\u201d With her 6ft 7in cousin in tow as a chaperone, Charles kept her distance during the tour, refusing late-night requests from Cosby to discuss notes on her show alone. Cosby was riled, and started to come out on stage even before she had finished. \u201cHe\u2019d say: \u2018We had a party last night and I invited Miss America but she didn\u2019t come. Can you believe that? Maybe she\u2019s getting a little too full of herself.\u2019 Embarrassing me in front of the audience. And I\u2019d just play it off and smile.\u201d She says the Cosby Show offer was rescinded.<\/p>\n

Charles (right) with Tina Turner, music impresario Jerry Brandt and John Waite in 1984.<\/p>\n

Charles didn\u2019t see any incriminating behaviour, but heard whispers. \u201cI\u2019d see the hotel staff: \u2018You should have seen what happened last night.\u2019 But I didn\u2019t want to engage in it, because he was a very controlling person.\u201d How did she feel when Cosby\u2019s abuse \u2013 including sedating and sexually assaulting women \u2013 was finally uncovered? \u201cWe heard that he could be manipulative, too close. We didn\u2019t hear he\u2019s gonna drug you. It was so upsetting. It was shocking.\u201d<\/p>\n

By the late 80s, Charles was vying to become a recording artist: Capitol made her make \u201ctechno-type music\u201d while RCA wanted to brand her as an R&B artist in the \u201csultry Sade style\u201d, ignoring her wish to make pop. It seemed she had no control over her artistry. \u201cYes, that\u2019s right, and my image,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was frustrating. I consider myself a multicultural person. RCA wanted to pigeonhole me in a particular style and persona that wasn\u2019t really me.\u201d She wanted to make music with the same \u2018pop, R&B, bluesy, soul-y\u2019 feel as Rick Astley and Lisa Stansfield, and felt her suggestions, such as working with labelmate and pop-R&B singer Freddie Jackson, were ignored. \u201cThey were only interested in ticking off boxes.\u201d<\/p>\n

SAW\u2019s Stock says such attitudes were prevalent throughout the industry at the time. \u201cA lot of artists\u2019 careers have been destroyed by that. You had to play the game they wanted you to play.\u201d SAW was different, he claims. \u201cWe always went against the grain with the industry, and we took a lot of flak for it. We\u2019d do everything to service the singer and the song. I like to find out about the person, then write something appropriate to their life. That\u2019s a fair way of doing it rather than just giving them something off the shelf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles took bold action to get out of her RCA situation. She flew to London in 1993 and turned up unannounced at SAW\u2019s office. After verifying her story, Stock tested her credentials by making her sing You Are My Sunshine. Impressed, he quickly set about writing six songs for her. \u201cI got something from her that she felt chained up a little bit, that she\u2019d been a victim of the music industry,\u201d he says. Stock \u201cimmediately understood me\u201d, says Charles.<\/p>\n

One song, Free to Love Again<\/a>, was released, reaching No 58 in the UK. It proved to be her last. RCA dropped Charles, unhappy that she\u2019d gone to London, but then SAW split up after falling out. It left Charles in limbo: \u201cI had no idea what happened. It was great. And then all of a sudden, crickets, nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was caught in the crossfire,\u201d says Stock, who found it too painful to continue work on SAW projects. \u201cThe whole episode was very traumatic. I needed to fill up my mind with doing something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles with Frank Sinatra, his wife, Barbara, and Roger Moore, 1985.<\/p>\n

Charles moved on, too: after returning to the US, she took a call from record producer David Foster, who had just enjoyed huge success with C\u00e9line Dion and Whitney Houston: \u201cI nearly fell off my chair!\u201d In 1994, Charles recorded an album\u2019s worth of material for Foster\u2019s imprint 143 Records, a sub-label of Atlantic, but it remains unreleased. \u201cI have no idea why,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Fatefully, Charles then married a doctor who, she says, was reluctant for her to pursue her career. \u201cI raised two children, secretly dreaming: gosh, what happened to my career? It just went away like a balloon that kept flying away in the air. It bothered me that I worked so hard and I\u2019m so talented.\u201d She felt unable to talk about her past in the house. \u201cIt was some hush-hush thing, as if I had anything to be ashamed of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her absence didn\u2019t go unnoticed: People magazine was one of several publications that ran a where-is-she-now story. But she remained confined to the domestic realm. \u201cI felt very sad. And unfortunately, a lot of women feel this: I don\u2019t want to split up a family, but what about me?\u201d<\/p>\n

When her daughter left for college, Charles thought: \u201cI have to start living for me.\u201d She divorced, went back to studying and began dating again. One first date, an attorney called Paul Kaplan, knew that Charles had worked with Stock. \u201cHe said, \u2018What are you doing studying? You should get in touch with him again.\u2019\u201d Her mother, present at the original session, also encouraged her.<\/p>\n

\u2018Living my best life\u2019 \u2026 Charles. Photograph: Simon Fowler<\/p>\n

But Charles was unsure. \u201cI thought: I\u2019m so damn old, he\u2019s not going to answer my email.\u201d Stock did reply, although he didn\u2019t mention a plan to work together, but in 2015 they reunited at his studio. And after listening to the old songs \u2013 \u201csurreal, I remembered exactly what I felt singing them\u201d \u2013 Charles convinced him to finish the album.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn every rational level, why would you do it?\u201d Stock says. \u201cBut she\u2019s such a nice person, you can\u2019t turn her down. Nobody [in the music industry] wants to cater to women of a certain age. But they have a right to music as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2024, they began rerecording old tracks alongside five new Stock compositions about \u201cbeing in a relationship that\u2019s held you back\u201d, Charles says. Again, she felt understood. \u201cWe have a creative connection. I don\u2019t know his personality, but he knows me inside, somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a classically Stock record of disco-pop bangers and occasional epic ballads. Old songs found new meanings, particularly Free to Love Again: \u201cI\u2019m free, baby!\u201d she says. Charles is now married again, to Kaplan. \u201cI spent years with this other person that wanted to put me in the closet. Now I have someone supportive who really sees me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ending she never thought possible. Touring with Sammy Davis Jr, Charles used to perform his song I\u2019ve Gotta Be Me. \u201cAnd I didn\u2019t even know what the hell that meant,\u201d she says. She starts welling up and wipes away tears. \u201cI understand what it means now. It\u2019s me living my best life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suzette Charles\u2019s self-titled album is released on 22 May via Absolute Label Services<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2018I can\u2019t believe this is actually happening!\u201d Suzette Charles says on a video call. At 63, she is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[18,117,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-485683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116577636537482197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}