Melanie Fiona has spent much of her career using music to connect with audiences around the world. This week, the two-time Grammy Award winner is returning to another part of her story: her Guyanese roots.
The singer, entrepreneur and podcast host will serve as keynote speaker at the WeLead Women’s Leadership Conference in the Guyanese capital of Georgetown on June 27, joining women from business, government, culture and the diaspora as Guyana celebrates its 60th year of independence.
For Fiona, whose parents were both born in Guyana, the opportunity represents more than another appearance on stage. It is a return to the country that helped shape her family’s story.
“It’s a goal I didn’t even know I wanted to accomplish,” Fiona told TheGrio. “I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting on my mother’s journey from being a young girl in Guyana to who she’s become.”
The conference, themed “Guyana to the World: Women Building Global Bridges,” comes at a pivotal moment for the South American nation, which is marking six decades of independence while experiencing one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Organizers say the gathering will bring together women leaders from across industries to discuss leadership, entrepreneurship and Guyana’s growing influence on the global stage.
She described the upcoming trip as a “passing of the baton,” allowing her to return to the country where her mother’s story began with a new perspective and a deeper appreciation for what made her journey possible.
“It feels very full circle,” she said. “It feels very passing of the baton for me to be able to go back to the country where she was born and has roots and has started her life as a woman.”
The visit will also mark Fiona’s first trip to Guyana since she was 9 years old.
While Guyana’s economic growth has drawn international attention in recent years, Fiona said many people outside the Caribbean are only now beginning to recognize what Guyanese communities have long known.
“To know that it is having an economic upswing and is being now focused and having a light shone on it for its progression and its success and its tourism and all the things, I think if you know Guyana, they’ve always felt very proud and rich for their country,” she said.
Fiona has spent much of her life educating others about Guyana and the broader Caribbean diaspora. Growing up in Toronto and later living in the United States, she often found herself correcting misconceptions about where Guyana is located and what it represents.
“I feel very Guyanese,” she said. “The way I was brought up, the values, the morals, the discipline. Everything felt very traditional to having Guyanese parents.”
That pride in her heritage aligns with the conference’s focus on building global connections. Fiona believes women, particularly women from the Caribbean and its diaspora, are increasingly refusing to shrink themselves or wait for validation before pursuing leadership roles.
“I think women are tired of being misled by men,” she said. “I think we’ve had enough of it.”
She pointed to growing access to community, information and collective action as reasons more women are stepping into positions of influence. For Fiona, leadership is not just about professional advancement. It is about creating opportunities for future generations, including her own daughter.
“I want her to have that level of confidence and permission for herself,” she said. “I think we do need to see more women taking a stance for themselves, fighting for their autonomy and their rights and their voices.”
Fiona’s evolving perspective has also been shaped by motherhood. Through “The Mama’s Den,” the parenting podcast she co-hosts with fellow mothers, she regularly discusses the experiences that shape women beyond their roles as parents.
Those conversations have encouraged her to think more deeply about the women who came before her and the sacrifices that made her own opportunities possible.
In recent years, Fiona has expanded her platform beyond music. Along with podcasting, she has launched initiatives centered on motherhood and empowerment while embracing more public speaking opportunities.
Many of those opportunities, she said, stem from a personal commitment to saying yes. Last year, Fiona released an EP titled “Say Yes,” which became both a creative project and a guiding principle.
“It was kind of a mantra for my life to say yes to the things that I was being called to do with my voice, with my gifting as a woman,” she said.
That mindset ultimately led her to Guyana.
She hopes the connections formed at the conference create opportunities for women across borders and industries while encouraging others to pursue paths they may have once considered out of reach.
“I’m saying yes to taking this trip down to Guyana and to connecting and building a bridge from North America to the Caribbean, to Guyana, to my roots,” Fiona said. “Hopefully that allows other women to feel like they can walk across it.”
For Fiona, success today looks different than it did when she first entered the music industry. Rather than defining herself by a single accomplishment or identity, she has embraced the freedom to evolve.
“That looks like for me personally not holding on to any one version of myself,” she said. “That allows for me to evolve and to grow and to unlearn and learn, to die and to be reborn, to push myself to new limits, to answer the call that feels natural of pivoting and evolution.”
It is a lesson she hopes resonates with women attending the conference and young women watching from afar. If she could leave them with one piece of advice, she said, it would be simple: trust yourself.
“Women are gifted with intuition and insight,” Fiona said. “It is the compass. We create life. So there is a magic about us that no one else has.”
“And I think sometimes as young women, we are forced to trust other people more than we’re allowed to trust ourselves,” she added.
