This whole week, I’ve stuck to very commercial choices in pop music to blog about, so to break the habit I’m bringing you the best of Belgium.
In music, Belgium might not seem like a place that houses a lot of big musicians, but that’s not so. First of all, it’s got a vibrant dance scene and there are many rock festivals there.
Selah Sue is one of those singers, who is often featured in the lineup of festivals and you can actually best describe her as a live act. Still, as a recording artist, she’s doing well too.
She sounds like she could be from England or straight from the streets somewhere in the States.
Her use of the English language and slang reveal an influence of Hip Hop and, at times, you will hear her rap a little bit, but the label most given to her as an artist, is that she’s a modern day soul singer in the lines of Amy Winehouse, Erykah Badu and Duffy.
There’s a little bit of everything in her music; soul, neo soul, funk, jazz and Hip Hop. Her voice has got a rough edge to it, but can also reach a nice velvet fragile tone in the higher notes.
She can go from super sensitive to super confident. In a way, this also describes her personality as she’s medicated for depressions. It wouldn’t be a surprise to me, if this also gives her music a darker edge at times. Either way, her music’s got depth like her hair has got height.
Her big break happened on an Open Mic night, when she was just 17, which got her spotted by Milow (mostly known for his rework of 50 Cent’s “Ayo Technology”). He introduced her to the press and important performances followed, like the North Sea Jazz Festival, Lowlands and opening for Prince.
In 2010 she recorded a duet with CeeLo Green, which ended up on both their albums. A year later, she released her self-titled debut album and a few hit singles like “Raggamuffin”, which had also been featured on the two EPs she’d released earlier, and “This World”, which almost sounds like it could be a Portishead song in the beginning.
This year, she released her second album, “Reason”, which spun off the hit single “Alone”, and she played a Spotify session in Amsterdam, which you can find on Spotify (duh!).
Her fan base, currently, exists of festival goers, but she’s got the potentially to put Belgium on the map again when it comes to music.
