Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Cherie Laurent's newest single is titled 'Lover' – a song about letting your hair down to explore your sexy side.
Born in Baghdad, Cherie also pays homage to Australia in the single – a country she adores and is proud to call home."When I arrived to Australia as an immigrant, I was not familiar with the term 'oi'. As I was crossing the road I was almost hit by a car and the driver yelled oi at me!
"Back then I did not know the meaning of it and I didn't know if it was good or bad! Now I use it wherever I go with my friends as an Australian thing and I love it.
"By the time I landed in NYC during Fleet Week, there were so many good-looking American sailors in their beautiful, white-pressed uniforms.
"That made my heart beat faster and my cheeks blush, as they would approach me and ask me where I was from and I always said I am Australian.
"They would immediately start using ou to refer to me as the Australian girl. This is where the lyric: 'Oi, Oi, Oi you're my randy sailor boy' was born."
Given the title of the song is lover, here Cherie shares some tales from her own romantic life searching for Mr Right.
"My journey as a woman looking for Mr Right – someone to love and cherish, to take care of, longing to be with in love and share life with, the good, the bad and in-between to grow old with, hold hands to our last destiny together – if I was lucky.
"My Mum and Dad's life started this way; they met each other through an arranged marriage, my Dad was 28 and my Mum was 18, both were virgins, and after 60 years of true love and devotion throughout all what life threw at them and having 9 children, I was the child number 9.
"I dreamed of the same thing, the endless love that only ends when you say goodbye in each other's arms where death do us part. The only thing is, I was born in a different time and lived in a different place and culture.
"A time and place where women have more freedom and choices, so I decided to take the matter in my own hands and look for Mr Right.
"Here I am standing alone with an empty hand, broken heart and a mind full of memories. These are some of the highlights of what I believed was my Mr Right for a while until I realised I have looked for love in the all the wrong places."
1: Mr Mummy's Boy
I was 18, he was 45. His name in my book Mr Mummy's Boy. He called his mum every day in the morning and told her every little detail about our life including our private life.I felt I was dating his mum, not him! After four years, I just had to walk away. I realised he was a baby at 45 and he will never keep growing to become a man. I was looking for a man to love, not for a baby to take care of.
2: Mr What's Love Got To Do With It
I spent more time covering up my black eyes and bruises from his aggressive, violent and anger problems, than I did making love to him. One year was full of violence, emotional and physical abuse. Locking me up in the apartment for a week without food. He blamed it all on his love for me and jealousy.I learned that when a man hits you, you need to walk away otherwise you give him permission to keep giving it to you over and over.
Because of him, I become a women activist of women rights and do everything I can in my power to stop this from happening to other women. I devoted so many episodes of my TV show to talk about domestic violence and help women to seek help they need and run free from abusive relationship.
3: Mr I Am Too Sexy For My Cat But Not For My Dog?
Coming out of an abusive relationship, my self esteem was not that great so the first few words and compliments from what I thought was Mr. Right finally arrived.He was good looking, masculine, and lovely in every way. He worked as a male model with one of the biggest model agencies in the country. I saw his photos from a few magazine covers and ads, and all my girlfriends were jealous and thought he was too good for me, and that he should be with them.
I fell in love with him, until our first Valentine's day. Yes I did get the box of chocolates, the red roses and the romantic dinner, and it was the time to take our relationship to the romantic, intimate stage, only then in the middle of passionate kisses when I looked deep in to his eyes and asked him a naughty question: "What's the most wild thing you have ever done in the bedroom?"
He looked deep in to my eyes and said: "I had sex with my dog." Clearly I laughed and said no seriously, and he looked deeper into my eyes and repeated it.
Clearly at that second my world fell apart around me, I pushed him and ran to the ladies room trying to get over my disgust before I said what was it male or female? He replied very angrily: "Of course it is female, I am not gay!" That made me crack up laughing!
I went back to the bedroom and asked him to leave. I never saw him again. He kept calling asking for a second chance. I blocked his number and stopped dating for a very long time.
4: Mr The Big Lie
I met him on a dating app. Mr. Perfect again: good looking, good gob, good family with mum and dad. Dressed well, spoke well, everything about him was perfect.He asked me to marry him and I said yes. We had a beautiful engagement party, this time I wanted him to meet my family, we lived together, we travelled the world, he was the love of my life until one day I get this message with his photo with another women; she was nothing special, she even looked older than him so I was not sure what was going on.
Then the second message arrived of him with her and three children as old as 15 years old. He was married all this time; everything about him was a lie, even his name. It was a fake name. I still have our photos together. We had a full life and dreams; the only thing. . . I was just a fantasy in his world. I asked him to leave.
5: Mr Maserati
Met him at a friend's party; he knew everything about me, he was a big fan and admirer as he called himself and he asked me out. He drove a Maserati, owned a beautiful house, and dressed all in designer clothing.We used to go out and when I came back home, I noticed my hand bag was always empty, no money in it. I thought a few times either someone stole my money or I may have dropped it. However this started to happen every time. Then things around my apartment started to disappear: my tablet, my phone, my money, then step by step mostly everything was going out including my medication.
I eventually found he was very good at selling things on Facebook. He was on the phone all time, so I took his phone and saw photos of naked private men, women, as well as girls under age and I looked at his Facebook to find all my stuff either sold or getting sold.
I took his phone and went to the police and reported him for having sex with underage girls/ boys and stealing.
Now: My Hiski Biskhi Lover
In my new song 'Lover', I am dating three lovers at the same time and I keep flipping from one to one. I feel totally a good girl turned bad.First lover is called Google. My second lover is called YouTube. My third lover is Netflix – this one he used me, he charged me to spend time with me, LOL! These three lovers together I call the Hiski Biskhi Lover (you will find his name in my new song 'Lover').
Thank you for giving me your time and sharing my journey of dancing on thorns looking for love.
