CHAPTER SIX: LATINO BARBIE DOLL

Mayte's first meeting with Prince

O(+>'s dancer Mayte, who had been trained in both ballet and bellydance, had entered his life in the summer of 1990 when she was just 16 years old and he was 32 and still called Prince. "I saw him in Spain, on the Nude Tour," Mayte revealed in a 1995 interview for Uptown #21. "I saw his concert there with my family and my mom just said, "You have to give him a video of your dancing! Just give it to him.""

At the time, Mayte was living with her Puerto Rican parents in Wiesbaden, Germany, where Mayte's father was posted as a pilot in the US military. Mayte's parents brought her to another Prince concert and they managed to get invited backstage by Prince's roadies and got Prince to watch a video tape of her dancing. "It was my mother who did it," Mayte told Uptown. "My mother made me give him the video of my dancing."

The official story, which was printed in O(+>'s The Truth magazine in 1998, was that Mayte's father asked Kirk Johnson of the Game Boyz to show the tape to Prince and that at the same time Prince drew NPG member Rosie Gaines' attention to Mayte, who was standing with her mother outside the venue as the tour bus pulled up, and commented: "Look, Rosie. There's my future wife."

"I met him five minutes later," Mayte told Uptown.

"My first thought was, “Wow, he's really - small!” It came as a surprise, because he's got such a huge presence on stage," Mayte recalled to Daily Mail Online in 2006. "When I mentioned I could flip coins on my belly, he called everyone into the room to watch."

After their initial meeting, Prince would send her tapes of his new songs and she would send him videos of her dancing to his songs. He would also call her every other day. "Looking back, it was a bit surreal. I didn't tell many of my friends because they wouldn't have believed me. It was all quite innocent, but quite intense," Mayte pointed out.

The beginning of a love affair

When she turned 18 in November 1991, Prince invited Mayte to visit him at Paisley Park. "I was more shy than he was," Mayte confessed in Uptown #21. "He was very nice, very polite."

"Prince is an incredible performer on stage, but when you meet him he's not at all aloof; he's funny and charming and very aware," Mayte told Daily Mail Online. "It's the way he notices every detail about you. He'll comment on your hair, or acknowledge a new pair of earrings and when he looks at you he makes you feel like you're the centre of his universe - that's very beguiling."

"Prince was my first crush, and my first love, but we didn’t start to get serious until I turned 18. He was very respectful," Mayte recalled in an interview with the Mirror in 2015. "I remember our first kiss, and thinking, "Oh God, oh wow, this is not happening!" I remember it being overwhelming and weird. Our entire time together was amazing and surreal, and he showed me some incredible things and introduced me to incredible people.”

The relationship also had its shadow side, though."I wasn't allowed to call him, ever. Even when we were married; I had to wait for him to call me. I've no idea why, he never actually said," Mayte told Daily Mail Online.

"Prince was very protective of me and my father was happy to place me in his care. I was given my own apartment and within weeks I was off on (the Diamonds And Pearls) tour to Australia and the Far East (in April 1992) as a dancer in his band," she recalled to Daily Mail Online. "He was very precise about what he wanted, in private too, because it was all work. Being with him was like being at the centre of a 24-hour creative machine; if we weren't on stage, we were rehearsing, if we weren't rehearsing we were in the studio. I've heard people say he's demanding, but I never gave him reason to be demanding, I was always on point. I loved it."

Photos: Terry Gydesen

Mayte's first recordings

The first song Prince had Mayte work on upon her arrival in Minneapolis was However Much You Want. "That was a duet that we did when I first came to Minneapolis (in December 1991)," Mayte told in Uptown #21. "It was supposed to be on the O(+> album, but it didn't make it."

Prince also recorded a number of segues that told the story of an underage Princess Mayte's arrival in Minneapolis and subsequent romance with him. Most of those segues didn't make the O(+> album either. And it wasn't until following the name-change from Prince to O(+> and the 1993 Act II tour of Europe that O(+> decided to make an album with Mayte, but initially he didn't write any new songs for her to sing. Instead, in mid-September 1993, he pulled out some songs from his vault and recorded Mayte's vocals on them. Among them the 1991 Carmen Electra outtakes The Juice, Carmen On Top and Go Carmen Go as well as the previously released This Is My House.

When O(+> recorded The Most Beautiful Girl In The World on 20 September 1993, he had Mayte sing the song with the lyrics changed to fit a female perspective in both an English and a Spanish version. Initially, she added her vocals to the music of O(+>’s original version before Ricky Peterson did co-production on the track. Then her version got the same updated music as on O(+>'s new version that became a huge hit and the result was released as a single in 1994.

Mayte: The Most Beautiful Boy In The World single (1994)

1. The Most Beautiful Boy In The World (4:07)

2. ?Quieres Ser El Mas Bello De Este Mundo? (4:07)

The unreleased Latino Barbie Doll album

On 16 and 23 January 1994, Mayte performed at Glam Slam in Minneapolis. O(+> attended the second of these performances entitled Welcome 2 Erotic City. Mayte performed her first set to O(+>’s song Pheromone with a male dancer hanging from gym rings in the ceiling. The performance was filmed and used in O(+>’s video for Pheromone that was included in his Beautiful Experience TV-movie in the spring of 1994. Mayte’s second set was a belly dancing routine to an instrumental track.

It didn't take long before three songs from the initial Mayte sessions got bootlegged: If I Could Get Your Attention, originally recorded by Prince and then Jill Jones in 1986 before getting released by Taja Sevelle in 1987, Love's No Fun which had been released by Elisa Fiorillo in 1990 and Latino Barbie Doll from Sheila E.'s 1988 unreleased fourth Paisley Park album.

As with The Most Beautiful Boy In The World, the songs used the original music, Latino Barbie Doll even featuring Sheila E.'s original backing vocals, with the only difference being that the lead vocal was now performed by Mayte. "I did them as demos to see what vocal range I could reach. That wasn't supposed to get released - these were bootlegs," Mayte explained in Uptown #21. "Yeah, I did a whole bunch of demos to see where I wanted to go. Somebody took them..."

Despite Mayte's claim that the "covers" she did was just demos, the bootlegged tracks were from an unreleased 1994 Mayte: Latino Barbie Doll album, which was made up almost entirely of covers of Prince songs. Except for the title track and However Much U Want, all the songs had previously been released.

Mayte: Latino Barbie Doll (1994)
1. If I Love U Tonight (4:19)
2. Love’s No Fun (3:41)
3. Latino Barbie Doll (4:49)
4. However Much U Want (3:33)
5. If I Could Get Your Attention (2:47)
6. Telepathy
7. Violet Blue
8. Slow Love
9. Hold Me
10. Si Te Amo Esta Noche (4:20)
Bonus Tracks:

11. The Most Beautiful Boy In The World (4:07)

12. ?Quieres Ser El Mas Bello De Este Mundo? (4:07)

Telepathy was originally recorded by Prince in October 1986. He gave it to Deborah Allen who released it as a single in 1987. Violet Blue was on Jill Jones' 1987 album and Hold Me was recorded by Prince in the summer of 1990 and had been offered to both Rosie Gaines and Anita Baker before getting released on Jevetta Steele's 1993 Here It Is album.

Si Te Amo Esta Noche was a Spanish version of If I Love U Tonight which was originally recorded with Prince's band The Rebels in 1979. He remade it as If I Love U 2 Nite in 1987 before giving it to Mica Paris who recorded her own version of it and released it as a single in 1991. As the opening track on Mayte's album, O(+> had Ricky Peterson produce a brand-new version based on a new recording with Mayte made by himself. Mayte revealed in Uptown #21 why that particular song had been chosen: "He played the song to me because one day we were just looking at demos he had done. He played it and looked at me and said, "This song - you should sing this song. The song fits you." Then I listened to the words and I was like, "Yes! OK." So then I translated it because it was just such a meaningful song and I could relate to it. People my age can relate to that. You know, in this world today... It was important for me to translate it so that more people can get it, you know, Latin people."

Taking Love's No Fun as an example, Mayte commented on the reasoning for using old songs: "Again, "That song is perfect for you." I said, "It is! I could relate to that song. The artist that did it originally, the record company didn't back her up and didn't release it as a single. So it was a waste. Even though you heard it and all of the other fans that buy his records have heard it, the majority of people have not heard it. He just said, "Oh man, I can't let this song go. You need to do it again." I'm honoured for anything that he gives little me. So I said, "OK.""

Real-life Latino Barbie Doll

O(+> may have chosen Latino Barbie Doll as the title track for Mayte's album because he didn't just suggest to her which of his old songs she should sing, but also dictated the clothes she dressed in, what shoes she wore and how she wore her hair. "He would tear pictures out of magazines and put together a whole look for me on stage; Vivienne Westwood, then Versace," Mayte told Daily Mail Online in 2006.  "It was a strange relationship, but great. Yes, he was a bit controlling, but I was young, I'd never had a boyfriend so I had no idea how it was supposed to be," Mayte continued. 

When asked about O(+>'s legendary mirrored-ceiling bedroom, she replied: "Yeah, we had sex, sure, but that mirrored bedroom wasn't used too much. The kinkiest stuff we ever did was on stage - that's where I had the handcuffs."

"Back then I lived his life and was happy to do so. I didn't really express myself as a person as much as I could have, but I think that comes with age. What was important to me was that he saw me as an equal musically and artistically. I could say “I don't like that song” and he would listen to me."

But Mayte liked If I Love U Tonight, and it got released as If Eye Love U 2night on O(+>'s 1-800-NEW-FUNK compilation album on 12 August 1994. The cover text boasted that it was Mayte's new single, and a single was indeed made, but for some strange reason it wasn't released officially, only in Prince's own NPG stores, making it a rare and expensive collector's item. A video for the song did get released, though.

Mayte: If Eye Love U 2night single (summer 1994)
1. If Eye Love U 2night (4:19)
2. However Much U Want (3:33)
3. If Eye Love U 2night (Spanish Version) (4:20)

The version of However Much U Want that was included on the single was supposedly the original 1991 recording of the song with O(+>'s vocals being very prominent. It was probably that version which was also included on the Latino Barbie Doll album.

A brand-new album configuration

It was decided to continue work on Mayte's album instead of releasing it as it was in 1994, and by the time a new configuration was ready in May 1995, the album had been rechristened Child Of The Sun and only included three songs from the original configuration: If Eye Love U 2night, Love's No Fun and However Much U Want.

Love's No Fun featured a 10 second musical intro that wasn't on the previously bootlegged version, but otherwise it was identical, but However Much U Want had been re-recorded, now sounding more like a duet between O(+> and Mayte. The album now focused mostly on songs by Prince/O(+> that hadn't been released before and a couple of songs written with Mayte in mind. "O(+> wrote most of the songs," Mayte admitted in Uptown #21. "The NPG played on it."

Mayte: Child Of The Sun (5 May 1995)
1. Children Of The Sun (4:22)
2. In Your Gracious Name (5:00)
3. If Eye Love U 2night (4:20)
4. The Rhythm Of Your Heart (5:37)
5. Ain’t No Place Like U (4:33)
6. House Of Brick (Brick House) (4:27)
7. Love’s No Fun (3:52)
8. Baby Don’t Care (5:41)
9. However Much U Want (4:43)
10. Mo’ Better (4:54)

The Rhythm Of Your Heart was a new version of the Prince song The Rhythm that had originally been recorded during the 1989 Graffiti Bridge sessions. It was titled Listen 2 The Rhythm on the unreleased summer 1994 The Vault Volume I collection. The Mayte version featured O(+> prominently on vocals and a rap and was as much a duet as However Much U Want. "He just gave it to me and said, "Here, sing this,"" Mayte revealed in Uptown #21.

Ain't No Place Like U had originally been recorded by Jevetta Steele in the autumn of 1992 before O(+> now recorded a much improved guitar-driven remake of the song, which is fun because it has him singing the lyrics from a female perspective, indicating it was a demo for Mayte to record her vocals on. "That's a song that he had before and he had me sing it," Mayte told in Uptown #21. "It's another one that he "found" and then we arranged it differently. I was in the studio with them and I kind of told him the way I wanted the choreography to be, so we arranged it differently. (...) He did the guitar track in one take."

Mayte received a co-writing credit for Ain't No Place Like U which shared a drum effect with O(+>'s Emancipation outtake Slave. Later the effect was moved to the Emancipation song Slowly Candle Burns which later got retitled Slave, as well as appearing on Ain't No Place Like U.

Mayte also received a co-writing credit for the dance track Children Of The Sun which featured O(+> on backing vocals. O(+> also appeared on background vocals on the new song In Your Gracious Name. House Of Brick was a cover of Brick House by The Commodores and featured O(+> prominently on the chorus. "I like house music and when we did Brick House I didn't want it to sound exactly like Brick House," Mayte commented in Uptown #21. "So I told them, "We are going to add some Latin in here." Latin people gotta dig this, because I want to go in the Latin market, also. So that's why we called it House Of Bricks."

Baby Don't Care was a new version of the 1992 song Holly Don't Care which had been offered to Tevin Campbell. It also featured O(+> on backing vocals, as did the ballad Mo' Better which was produced by Kirk Johnson.

Updating the experience

Mayte was the opening act for O(+> at his 37th birthday concert at Glam Slam Miami on 7 June 1995. She performed a show with 7 dancers, lip-synching to a playback of three songs: Children Of The Sun, The Rhythm Of Your Heart and Baby Don't Care.

The music for Children Of The Sun had been updated and O(+>'s rap had been removed from the now much shorter The Rhythm Of Your Heart since the 5 May configuration of Child Of The Sun. These new versions were included on the final configuration of the album.

A new version of If Eye Love U 2night had also been recorded. Mayte used it for a playback performance on a TV show, but when her Child Of The Sun album was finalized, it was decided to stick with the previously released 1-800-NEW-FUNK version of the song. The Spanish version of the song also got included, as did the previously released The Most Beautiful Boy In The World.

Warner Bros. did not want to release the album, but it got released independently on 27 November 1995, although only in Europe.

Mayte: Child Of The Sun (1995)

1. Children Of The Sun (4:29)

2. In Your Gracious Name (5:05)

3. If Eye Love U 2night (4:18)

4. The Rhythm Of Your Heart (3:16)

5. Ain’t No Place Like U (4:44)

6. House Of Brick (Brick House) (3:19)

7. Love’s No Fun (3:57)

8. Baby Don’t Care (5:25)

9. However Much U Want (4:32)

10. Mo’ Better (4:55)

11. If Eye Love U 2night (Spanish) (4:18)

12. The Most Beautiful Boy In The World (4:30)

Some of the tracks had been updated since they were last heard. Ain't No Place Like U no longer had a guitar intro before the vocal set in, but the guitar jam at the end was longer instead. House Of Brick had a sample from the movie Back To The Future added at the beginning and had horns added to the ending while about a minute of the NPG jamming on the melody and O(+> singing the chorus over and over had been cut. About twenty seconds of an instrumental passage had also been edited out of Baby Don't Care. The spoken intro to However Much U Want was now backwards and a giggle from Mayte had been added to the ending. O(+>'s background vocals on Mo' Better had been replaced with Kathleen Bradford's voice.

Love's No Fun featured new production by Kirk Johnson. "I did it my way. We changed it. We arranged it differently. It sounds really different," Mayte stated in Uptown "21. "And it's just a beautiful, perfect song that didn't have the opportunity that it should have had. They should have released it as a single, should have been a video. I mean, people can relate to that song. Songs like that you just can't let go and I didn't have a problem with doing it."

"I'm planning to translate it into Spanish, So, even if it's not released here, it will be released in the Latin market," she continued, but that plan ended up not happening. If Eye Love U 2night became the only single release from the album. The single included a radio edit, as well as the Spanish version and The Rhythm Oh Your Heart from the album. A maxi-single with 3 remixes was also released. The remixes were not made by O(+>.

Mayte: If Eye Love U 2night single (1995)

1. If Eye Love U 2night (Radio Edit) (3:30)

2. If Eye Love U 2night (4:19)

3. If Eye Love U 2night (Spanish Vers.) (4:20)

4. The Rhythm Of Your Heart (3:17)

Mayte: If Eye Love U 2night maxi-single (1995)

1. If Eye Love U 2night (4:19)

2. If Eye Love U 2night (Lil' Cash Mix) (5:02)

3. If Eye Love U 2night (Displacement Mix) (6:05)

4. If Eye Love U 2night (Tweakin' Dub) (7:13)

Revisiting the experience

Mayte promoted her album by travelling to Europe and talking to the press prior to the album release, but the press was more interested in her relationship with O(+> than hearing about her album.

Following the album release, Mayte performed at Glam Slam in Miami on 16 and 17 December 1995. Her brief 20 minute set included Children Of The Sun, In Your Gracious Name, Ain't No Place Like U and abbreviated versions of Mo' Better and If Eye Love U 2night.

A couple of years passed and then it was announced on O(+>'s Love 4 One Another website in the spring of 1998 that a Mayte album entitled Scorpio was in the works. It would be a mixture of tracks from Child Of The Sun and new tracks like the title track.

Mayte: Scorpio (spring 1998)

Track list unknown, but includes Scorpio and Rhythm Of Your Heart

However, Mayte and O(+> separated in 1998 and Scorpio didn't get released. The first single from the album, Rhythm Of Your Heart, also remained unreleased, although some copies had been made. It included a remix of the song.

Mayte: Rhythm Of Your Heart single (spring 1998)

1. Rhythm Of Your Heart (3:16)

2. In Your Gracious Name (5:05)

3. Rhythm Of Your Heart (Remix) (6:11)

Mayte sold her supplies of the single through her website mayte.com in October 2007.

"All the songs he wrote for me, that’s a pretty hard act to follow," Mayte admitted to the Mirror in 2015. "I’ve dated a couple of guys, musicians, who have written me poems or songs and I’m like, "Seriously, don’t even go there. You can’t compete!" But I think I’m now screwed for life because my first relationship was the most bizarre relationship ever and I’m not normal any more. I’ve kind-of been spoiled and I guess I am kind-of screwed-up now.”