all:
found the issue and was able to resolve.
issue:
- /etc/mysql/my.cnf includes /etc/mysql/mariadb.cnf
- /etc/mysql/mariadb.cnf includes /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/
- /etc/mysql/mariadb.conf.d/ includes 50-server.cnf
file: /etc/mysql/maridb.conf.d/50-server.cnf
[original] collation-server = utf8mb4_general_ci
[new] collation-server = utf8mb4_unicode_ci
thanks @crafter
btest