DANI DOUCETTE
CANADIAN POP ARTIST ON THE RISE
By Natalie Messina
Dani Doucette – a Canadian Pop Artist on the rise has released her latest album, “Run with Me”. Dani is currently focused on her music while building her brand at the same time. Her newest song is called, “Feel My Love.” In this interview, Dani shares personal life experiences as a rising Canadian pop star. We find out what really happened after the police searched her hotel room in Mexico – as well as her experiences in Los Angeles and New York with some prominent Hollywood celebrities.
“I'm going to have to keep some people's names out of this because they're prolific Canadian celebrities,” said Dani. “A few years ago, there was a group of us in Mexico and I was there to model for a swimsuit photo shoot. We all stayed at the same hotel. Being Canadian (where it’s legal), some of the models wanted to find some weed to smoke.”
The situation began to escalate when one of the models bought marijuana from a guy on the beach. Later that night, they decided to have a party in their hotel room to celebrate the fact that they finally made it to Mexico. “There were 12 of us crammed into one hotel room,” said Dani. “Six of them were outside on the hotel balcony smoking a joint, and as I looked down I noticed that the security guards were staring at us.”
One of the security guards started motioning toward a guy on the beach. At that point, Dani realized really quickly that the guy selling weed on the beach was the one who tipped off the security guards. She looked at the models and said, “Guys… I think we need to get rid of everything now because I have a really weird feeling about this.” Within a few minutes, there was a knock at the door and eight police officers showed up.
Since Dani was still pretty sober, she answered the door to talk to the police officers. “You guys have marijuana, and it’s illegal,” said one of the officers. She told them that they didn’t have anything but the officers were being forceful and pushed her as they entered the room. At that time, Dani was in the room with some prominent Canadian television personalities. Dani wanted to protect them and started motioning for people to leave the room. There was only Dani and two other girls left in the room. Once it was just them, the police officers forced their way in and started going through all of their stuff. Dani was standing there, and one officer said to her, “Why are your eyes red?” She replied, “I’ve been wearing fake eyelashes all day while swimming in the ocean!” An hour later, Dani and her one friend were the only two left with the officers. It was nerve-racking. They were all on a group chat asking Dani what was going on and if everything was okay. The officers said to Dani, “We have issues with you, you are going to jail.” Dani said, “Well, you're not going to have any issues with anybody else. I’ll take the wrap for everyone. I’ll go to jail.” As a prank, Dani told her friend to announce in the group chat that she’s being taken to jail.
Luckily the police officers decided to leave, and so they went down to the beach to meet up with everyone that had left. “Personally, I don't smoke often,” said Dani. But one girl complained, “I can’t believe we lost all of that weed!” The other girl announced, “Who says that we lost it? I put it in my… you know where! Then I took it out and buried it under a palm tree!” They were all on the beach, laughing hysterically when Dani said to her, “Oh my gosh, you’re my Beyoncé. What a boss! You’re amazing!” Everyone laughed some more and even to this day, they laugh about smoking “Vagina Weed.”
“Honestly, I’ve had a pretty crazy life and I have so many stories,” says Dani. “On the first day I arrived in Los Angeles, (American actress, singer and songwriter) Lindsay Lohan was just sitting there on the couch at my boyfriend’s house with a guitar.” When Dani walked into the house, Lindsay greeted her and she thought to herself, “Oh my gosh, this is Lindsay Lohan! How am I supposed to act?” Later that night, they had a huge party at the house. The rock band Incubus was playing there and it was a crazy party. “I was just there barbequing and I remember looking at the crowd of people. Quentin Tarantino was there and the Olsen twins came by later,” said Dani. The party was a blast, Ashley Olsen ordered enough sushi for the entire party! At that time, Dani was just starting her music career and doing some part-time modeling.
“When I was frequenting Los Angeles, a rumour started (when I returned to Toronto) that the song, Dani California, by the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers could be about me. I met Anthony Kiedis a few times.” The guy that Dani was casually dating on and off at the time, Shannon Leto (American musician and songwriter best known as the drummer of rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars), used to go to raw bars with Anthony because he was now living a super healthy raw vegan lifestyle after years of drug abuse. Shannon co-founded the rock band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, with his younger brother, American actor, Jared Leto. Dani is a small-town girl, with a population of 100, who found herself in a weird situation. “I met Shannon when the band toured through Toronto. I put my number on a toilet paper roll (from his tour bus) and from then on I stayed with him and Jared whenever I travelled to see them there or on the tour bus. Some of my favourite memories are staying up late and keeping the tour bus driver awake while popping into service stations for American junk food.”
“There was also the time when we all went to New York to shoot a music video and Lindsay was there,” said Dani. Lindsay and Dani ended up spending a lot of time together because their boyfriends were in the same rock band. Lindsay and Dani were in a back room together eating pizza and talking about Lindsay’s Dad – he was in jail at the time. Lindsay was writing “Confessions of a Broken Heart,” a song about her father. Lindsay decided she wanted to grab a coffee and Dani suggested that they go to Starbucks together. Dani wasn’t used to hanging out with celebrities. Lindsay explained to her that it’s not as easy as you think to go for coffee in public. The Starbucks was just around the corner and Lindsay agreed to try to walk there even though she was famous. They noticed that people started to follow them and by the time they got to Starbucks there was a crowd of people staring at them. The barista put up an extra-large iced matcha latte on the counter. Dani whispered to Lindsay, “What do you think would happen if I just took that latte?” Lindsay and Dani started laughing. They got their coffees and then Lindsay had to call her driver to get them out of the Starbucks. This huge guy came in (the driver) and they got escorted out and whisked away in a black Escalade. “We were laughing so hard in the car. We were chilling and listening to a Gorillaz album. Whenever I hear those songs, I think of Lindsay and all the fun times we’ve shared together,” said Dani.
Follow Dani Doucette on social media and listen to her new album, “Run with Me”.
“Be with me, then you gotta run with me, baby
Free with me, leave with me, you know you wanna be with me…”
– Dani Doucette
Photography by: Kal Ata
Location: Raquel
Designer: Hedrixroe
Stylist: Hendrixroe
MUA & Hair: Asmara Lawrence
Photography Asst.: Barrett Mullholand
Social Media: Esther Mijaris
A Chaarmz Studio Production