Charo Hollis loved singing but couldn’t get out of the shadow of her talented mother, Alice Lowe Green.

She would hear the whispers whenever she got on stage: “That’s Alice’s daughter.”

It made it difficult for her to make her own way; for a very long while she sang back-up.

“It got to the point where I didn’t even tell people who my mother was,” she said. “I felt like I was in her shadow. Once, someone told me I sang better than my mother. I knew it wasn’t true, but it made me feel good that they said that.”

And then Dale Butler asked her to sing a solo in his play, Pickles & Spiced Ham: Bermudian Women of Song.

Her first instinct was to say no but she changed her mind once she learnt it was a tribute to female singers of days gone by.

“I felt like I was my mother’s representative,” said Mrs Hollis. “In the 1960s she sang with The Upper Room Quintet at hotels like the Hamilton Princess and the Inverurie.”

The play had a successful run last month and returns for a command performance at St Paul AME Church on Friday.

Mrs Hollis said that first show did a lot to help her get over her shyness.

“Dale has a way of finding the best in people,” she said. “I was relieved I didn’t have any lines to rehearse. He said, just say what comes naturally, and I was allowed to pick out the song. I chose Patti LaBelle’s version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

The audience stood and sang with her.

“The reception I got was a tremendous confidence boost,” she said. “And it was exciting to see Mr Butler’s vision come together. I’m proud to be a part of it.”

Her 68-year-old mother, who lives in South Carolina, wasn’t able to see the performance. She had a stroke shortly before the show. The cast will pay a special tribute to her on Saturday.

“I had to fly out the day after the play,” said Mrs Hollis. “I’ve only just gotten back. She is now in a vegetative state, and all we can do is pray.”

Music has always been part of Mrs Hollis’s life. She and her siblings, Wayne Ebbin, Jenay White and Jidé Lowe, sang with the Salvation Army as children.

She’s the only one who still sings although her brother does stage lighting design for Great Sound and her sister Jidé is a sound engineer in the US.

Her husband, Damon Hollis, is a singer and musician.

“He plays saxophone with the Bermuda Regiment Band,” she said. “We met in a singing group. My mother’s nephew is a musician as well and got a group together 18 years ago. He was combining people from different churches. My husband was in another church. We had that group sing at our wedding since they got us together.”

She has two children, Colin Grant and Shaddai Hollis, and a stepdaughter Rhema Webb-Hollis. She’s proud to say she sings as well.

“[Rhema] takes vocal coaching with Marcel Clemens,” Mrs Hollis said. “Marcel also helps me as well, as I am someone who has never had any formal training. I have always been someone who sings the high notes but was not comfortable with the lower ones. Marcel taught me that I have a range and to feel comfortable using it.”

• Check out Pickles & Spiced Ham on Friday at 7pm. Tickets, $25, are available from Music Box and St Paul AME Church. Part proceeds will go to the Mirrors programme and St Paul