In the pulsating heart of New York City, creativity thrives amidst the urban cacophony. For EMEL, this vibrant energy fuels her artistic vision, shaping her music into a powerful force for change. As an advocate for women’s empowerment and social justice, EMEL’s journey from Tunisia to the global stage reflects a commitment to amplifying marginalized voices and challenging the status quo. In this exclusive interview, EMEL shares insights into her influences, motivations, and the transformative power of her forthcoming album, “MRA.” Join us as we delve into the mind of a trailblazer who seeks to redefine the music industry and inspire a new era of equality and solidarity.
Living in New York City can be an exhilarating experience. How has the city influenced your music and your creative process?
I think NYC is a very vibrant and exciting environment for creativity. It’s so gigantic and boiling with energy all the time that it makes you reach your highest potential. I don’t think I would have been this creative somewhere else.
Family often plays a significant role in shaping our identities and aspirations. Can you share a bit about your family background and how it has influenced your journey as a musician?
I owe my good music education to my dad’s amazing taste and classic collection of vinyl. I listened as a kid to Beethoven, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Art Tatum, Mahalia Jackson, Cheikh Imam. I think it just developed my deep attraction to music very early on, and to this day, I’ve always put strings in my music, probably thanks to those years waking up to the sounds of the Four Seasons every Sunday morning.
How does it encapsulate the theme of female empowerment and creativity?
“Nar” means fire. Through trap and female rap, I wanted to put our rage in a badass feminist anthem. An unconventional, untamable female anthem that is breaking all clichés around us. I wanted to connect the energies of us African women from different parts of Africa and different cultural backgrounds between Tunisia and Mali to create a unique force, in our own way.
Your forthcoming album “MRA” seems to be a bold statement about reclaiming women’s voices and power in the music industry. What motivated you to explore this theme, and what do you hope listeners will take away from the album?
I was simply motivated by the lack of opportunities for female creatives in the music industry and beyond. As a female artist, you can hardly be trusted as a producer or composer. As a female producer, you hardly get hired, and so on. And even among female creatives, we hardly trust or hire each other by old inherited patriarchal reflexes. So I wanted to change all that because I didn’t believe there was a field or a skill where men were better. So I decided to do something about it and share my little platform to show the world that sisterhood is real and it’s powerful and necessary to change things. I want this album to be much more than a record. I want this to be a movement where women lift other women, trust them, and share opportunities because the world needs more women in charge to reach more fairness and surely a better world.
You’ve mentioned that every collaborator on “MRA,” from producers to musicians, technicians, and photographers, is a woman. Can you discuss the significance of this decision and how it influenced the creative process?
It was very hard at first to find the women. When you start looking for any position in the chain of an album making, there’s always more male recommendations which makes it much easier to work with men. They come first, they are more and very skillful. Women are very skillful but are underrepresented, invisibilized. So I wanted to fix that. And frankly, the creative part was a lot of fun. Every woman that came on board was so supportive and open and fun. I don’t think I’ve ever felt this understood. Women also work really fast and I loved their intuition.
The press release highlights the diverse range of collaborators on “MRA,” recruited from nearly every continent. How did you go about selecting these artists, and what was it like working with such a multicultural and multi-genre team?
It was not planned but once I started I couldn’t stop, especially working with rappers was super fascinating. The diversity in the languages and the flow made me so excited and thirsty for more. It was amazing to hear every woman deliver so strong in every different language. It was great to work with each and every collaborator on this album frankly. Everyone was so generous and brought their world with so much grace and power. I feel very lucky.
Your track “Naci En Palestina (I Was Born in Palestine)” and your performances in the region. Could you elaborate on your thoughts about the Palestine conflict and how your music serves as a form of advocacy or solidarity for the Palestinian people?
I started raising awareness very early on to the Palestinian cause. Tunisia welcomed Palestinians since the start and we always felt sensitive to their struggle. I made it a point throughout my career to always speak about Palestine so the world doesn’t forget what’s happening there. It’s very hard to think of every kind of abuse they are subject to on a daily basis. Yet they are such a generous people, so resilient and cheerful. I will never forget the joy in people’s eyes after my performance. It’s that simple, they just deserve life. A normal life like each one of us.
You mentioned wanting to change the system from within, specifically within the music industry, to ensure equal opportunities for women. What steps do you believe need to be taken to achieve this goal, and how can both artists and industry professionals contribute to this change?
I think it starts by changing our mindset because we, women, are responsible first. We’re used to each other as an oppressed people from such a long time to support each other and hire each other, yet, most women mostly hire other men, by lack of trust. By insecurity. We need to change that. We need more women in charge, not 50/50, we need women in decisive positions. How can the industry be fair and represent us if it’s mostly dominated by men, which means that they are the tastemakers, which is a problem. It also needs to extend to all society areas; we need to reverse the trend. To have not only more women in charge but more women than men in order to make up for all the years that we were way below equity levels.
Beyond the music industry, how do you hope your art and advocacy work can make a difference in addressing social and political issues such as the Palestine conflict?
My hope is that my art can help people feel empowered and connected to each other. It might sound simple but if people trust each other, have empathy for each other, feel empowered, they will not be oppressed and won’t allow others to be oppressed, it could be that simple. I want to bring out the most humane in us, the parts that are beautiful about being human, like creating art, music, love, connection, sisterhood, and brotherhood.
With “MRA” set to release soon, could you share some insights into the themes and messages explored throughout the album? How does each track contribute to the overarching narrative of reclaiming women’s voices and narratives?
A lot of the songs on the album are about self-love, overcoming challenges and boundaries, empowering each other, rising up, visibilizing minorities, talking about people who are victims of visible and invisible violence, and ultimately bringing healing by and through women.
As an artist with a strong social and political voice, how do you navigate the balance between creating music as a form of self-expression and using your platform to advocate for social change?
Both go together, hand in hand. I think about the music as therapy and a way of expressing my wildest sonic experiments at the same time as speaking up against what’s wrong and being a voice for the voiceless. I think after this album, it’s impossible for me to conceive my art as anything else than humane, it cannot be noise, it has to be a beautiful powerful noise that’s always seeking depth.
In your journey as a musician, what have been some of the most memorable moments or experiences that have left a lasting impact on you, both personally and professionally?
My first performances in Palestine. Singing at the Nobel Peace Prize. Singing in front of a million Kurdish people in Diyarbakir. Singing in Egypt by the pyramids and on a bridge on the highway. Making this album.
With your upcoming one-off show in London at the Jazz Café on May 21st, how are you feeling about this performance, and what can your fans expect from the experience?
Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for the future of your music career, and how do you envision continuing to use your platform to uplift and empower women in the industry and beyond? I think what I’d like the most going forward is surely performing for people everywhere and making soundtracks. I’m passionate about cinema and I’d love to start making more music for scores and hopefully making an album with Grimes sometime.
