French touch -- Meemee Nelzy
Meemee Nelzy
Picture by Jacky Gotin
I discovered this lovely lady recently on Facebook and she represents a breath of fresh air in my musical world. What comes to my mind when I listen to her music or read her words is positivity, and that is a trend I find in several other young artists these days, which gives me reasons to be optimistic!
Born in Paris with a French West Indian background, Meemee infuses her music with several different influences, including hip-hop, jazz, soul and Carribean music. The result is great and her album Ame Nouvelle (which means New Soul) is a fantastic collection triggering off a desire to travel and escape reality for a while. This an aspect of music I often mention but this is really important for me, as music is one of the rare things that allows me to disconnect from the world in this way.
The themes she approaches are revolving around love, relationships and most importantly self-discovery and empowerment. Even when she deals with 'negative' situations, there is a light of hope and the idea that you can always grow and learn from your experiences. It is a really smooth and inspiring album which will be in heavy rotation for quite a long time!
As usual it's better if you understand French and Creole, but you can still enjoy the beauty of the music and feel the positive vibrations. A proof that her music is universal is the wonderful reactions she provoked in the States, with rapper John Robinson and the famous blog Bama Love Soul praising her album and highly recommending it (it's in Bama Love Soul's 'Top 5 New Releases You Should Own').
My favourites on the album are all the tracks!!! :)Now, in order to convince you of the beauty of Meemee's music, here is the official video for her first single off Ame Nouvelle, entitled L'essentiel (quite transparent word, isn't it...). This song is a very inspiring call to come back to the basics, to get rid of unnecessary things and focus on what's truly important for one's growth and happiness. The video itself is also beautifully realised and if you didn't get why it made me want to travel, here's a hint. Enjoy!!!
I know you are already convinced by now, so just for the pleasure, here is the wonderful Gadé mwen an zyé ('look in my eyes' in Creole).
You can also listen to and download the song Soulagée ('relieved')
