Christina Milian has transformed her career into a ball of acting, hosting, ballroom dancing, and business ownership. Coming off of an upsetting elimination from Dancing With The Stars, this mom hasn’t missed a beat in her already jam-packed life. Her fear of dancing in a competition is over, and now she’s taking advantage of several opportunities—including her lucrative portable hookah company, Platinum Hookah. And did we mention she’s the face of Viva Diva wines?
In a recent interview with the songstress, she reminded us to live in the moment and “ relinquish all control and recognize your opportunities.” Jump the page to see what else this multifaceted woman is up to.
Photo Credit: Carell Augustus
Vixen: I know you just got eliminated from Dancing With The Stars, but you’re still steady going in your career.
Christina: It all somehow pans itself out, even being a mommy. I guess I’m so excited about it, I don’t realize how much it is. Like literally when I put it all on my calendar and somebody ask me about doing something, I’m like I can’t do that. I have someone talking to me about going on vacation for free, I literally don’t have the time to do that and I kind of don’t want to because I know something’s going to come up on that day and I don’t want to miss out on anything important. Right now there’s no time to rest, while everything is going well and the ball is rolling. I just want to make sure I can achieve as much as I can before the new year begins.
How was getting prepared for DWTS?
It was so much fun. It would be 5 hours a day, the challenge would be each week overcoming the hurdle of “I have to learn this, I can’t get this” to it’s stuck in your memory to next thing you know it’s the live show. I had a great time doing it because regardless of me being a performer in my music and film career, I was actually really nervous to do this. That’s exactly why I did it because I wanted to attack that fear of being nervous or being judged. I just had a lot of fun and I got really close to them, I made some good friends with the cast.
Yeah I see that you’re still supporting everybody.
Yeah I really do miss them. The day that I got eliminated I cried because I was having so much fun and on top of that I felt like I was saying bye to my family. It’s weird that we’ve only been working together for two months, but we were all going through the same thing.
How was it flipping sides and becoming a contestant?
On the hosting side I’d get nervous being that it’s live on TV. Being in that place, it’s not too bad. People really started to look out for me, campaign for me, tweet for me, and vote for me. I really started to feel the love. When I got to the moment I wasn’t nervous anymore, I was enjoying the moment.
What’s one thing you’re going to miss and one thing you’re really happy to get back to?
One thing I’ll miss the most is getting in good shape from dancing [laughs]. I lost 9 pounds from doing the show, and I was getting really firm. I’m glad to get back to having time for my household and my daughter.
She is the cutest little thing in the world. How do you manage spending time with her but also continuing your dream?
She’s like my best friend. If I was working or having a meeting, I brought her everywhere with me and still to this day even though I can’t bring her to everything with me I still try to take her to as much stuff as I possibly can. I like to make sure we have our special bonding time. She makes me feel really special.
Does she know that her mommy’s a celebrity?
Yes she knows and she knows her dad is too. She loves it. When she sees me on television she wants me to play it again and again. She studies it because after that she’ll either take the lines, the dance, or the music, and she’ll repeat it all over again back to me. Violet has a crazy memory and she’s definitely mesmerized with my performances. She knows her mom is an entertainer so it makes it easier for me when I’m going to dance or sing in the studio at least she knows what I’m doing so then it excites her when she gets to see it on television.
How supportive is your fiancé?
Jas is extremely supportive. He and I are like brother and sister. He grew up in a family where his father was in the entertainment business, the music business, so he’s very understanding of my career and he’s also really great with my daughter and we have a really great relationship. It works for me because believe me if it didn’t we would not be in it.
Photo Credit: Ryan/WENN.com
It seems that everything in your life is working out perfectly.
I never thought this would be the blueprint in my life. It’s great to be here and see what it’s like when you relinquish all control and recognize your opportunities, what’s in front of you, and kind of live life in the moment. When I was younger I would hear a lot of people comparing and I got sucked into that kind of thinking. You have your own story and your own path and amazing things can happen. [Jas and I] have a really cool relationship, we annoy each other but we also work together, he and I are also co-owners of platinum hookahs. He and I have a business together which is cool because we’re able to oversee something together and have something we can relate to when it comes to business from the beginning.
How do you separate business and your relationship?
Business comes up and we discuss it. At the end of the day, you can’t linger on stuff and we have to come to a solution on things. We put our minds together and we also have too other partners that we work with. I can’t help it I like to know everything and what’s going on. I handle a lot of the phone calls, the emails, and business and ideas. Luckily all the guys trust me and it hasn’t steered us wrong so far. We stay on each other to make sure everyone’s working equally and we’re all doing our share to make sure that it succeeds because you can’t lose track on something you put so much energy into. There are moments we talk about business but after that we cherish the normal stuff. I learned a lot about that. In the past my mother managed me for a long time and sometimes if its business and everything turns back to business it can be really hard on the relationship so I learned my lesson when it comes to that.
How did the hookah venture come about?
I like regular hookah for years. This past year it became very popular especially right before the summer. At the top of the year I had tried an electronic disposable hookah company because I seen somebody else on Instagram with it. I was puffing on it in the studio but my throat was hurting and I started to get a headache but I didn’t realize. But I felt so cool doing it and everybody kept asking me about it so I kept doing it. I kept going to the store because everybody wanted mine or asked me to pick them up one because instead of them picking it up themselves. I found out on one of the trips I made that the one I was smoking on had nicotine and I know that they have them without nicotine and the difference is 1000% better. My throat wasn’t hurting and I wasn’t getting a headache. Also I was spending a $100 dollars to by 10 of them so I was like why am I giving these out? Why don’t we research this and come up with our own company? So he and I did the research and eventually got together with our partners. God placed us at the right place at right time.
Are you involved in every part of the process?
Absolutely, including the money. I invested a lot of money into it you know. Some people are afraid to even spend their own money. If you have a passion, don’t stand and wait because it’s bad when you see somebody else do it and you could have been that person.
Photo Credit: Carell Augustus
How did Viva Diva Wines come about?
I went to this gifting suite that I wasn’t even supposed to go to and ended up meeting Robyn on behalf of Viva Diva. It’s funny because I admire people like Puff Daddy or Bethenney, you see all these different people succeeding in different avenues. So I ended up meeting Robyn and I was drinking [Viva Diva] and it was really good and she was just like “you should represent our line” and I was like “uhh yeah, absolutely”.
How has it been since you’ve become apart of the company?
We’re doing really well. We just got picked up in Wal-Mart, we’re at different states, and everyday we’re making progression, which is awesome. We do these bottle signings where I go to different liquor stores and the fans come out and I get to meet them in person, which is really cool. We’ve gone to places like Delaware, New Orleans, and Philly and I’m actually getting to reach out to the people. It’s really exciting and I love it because I personally love wines.
As far as music, will we be hearing anything soon?
I hope to have a single out before the end of the year. I actually have to go to my label and play them all the music I’ve been working on. I just wanted to wrap up some of these songs here so I had to make some time to make sure I got it done.
Last question, with all you have going on will there be wedding bells soon?
[Laughs] I need some time. It takes money too and I’m not excited about that part. I’m like “can we just have a party or something?”
Big or small or it doesn’t matter?
He has a really big family and I never got to do it big, so when that happens I’ll probably do it big this time.
Photo Credit: Carell Augustus