“I like to be spontaneous when I make music. I begin with beats or drums, because that’s what moves me and if I find a sound that reminds me of traditional music I’ll use it, whether it’s Arabic, Indian, African or European. I like to mix styles and cultures, to get lost in a big mess of music. Then I add lyrics about whatever’s in my mind at the time.”
Jain, Jain-Music.com
After performing her infectious single "Come" at the 2016 Les Victoires de la Musique (i.e. the French Grammys), French singer-songwriter Jain (Jeanne Galice) found the musical translations of her globe-trotting childhood (her father's career laid out her childhood across the Congo, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Paris) gaining popularity in her come country and Europe. Her debut album Zanaka (2015) - which means 'childhood' in Malagasy, her mother’s native tongue - is characterized by a bright, energetic, genre-fluid and maximalist sound that draws musical influences from Arabic percussion, African rhythms, funk, electro, reggae, soul and hip hop, which revolve around her French-accented jazzy English vocals.
"Makeba", the album's second single, has slightly more lyrical sense that "Come", which mostly eschews semantic meaning for rhythm, impulse and instinct. The song amounts to a quirky tribute to Miriam Makeba, a noted South African singer and civil rights activist:
“Her voice is part of my childhood. In Paris I discovered that a lot of my friends knew nothing about her. I found that sad so I wrote the song. The idea was to modernise Miriam Makeba so people my age might search her out. It was the last song I wrote for the album. It’s now the second single in France, so it’s on the radio. But Come is still played a lot too. It’s so funny to hear the song that started this album and the one that finished it, written seven years apart, on the radio at the same time.”
Makeba's historic achievements are alluded to in the verses, while the chorus mostly functions like a techno-tribal celebratory invitation to the dancefloor. Jain may not be mature enough to successfully take on the history of apartheid in her work just yet, but the brilliance and dynamism of her multinational sonic tapestry suggest that we can expect greater things in the future:
'I wanna hear your breath just next to my soulI wanna feel your breasts without any restsI wanna see you sing, I wanna see you fightCause you are the real beauty of human rightsOooheMakeba, makeba ma che bellaCan I get a oooheMakeba, makes my body dance for youOooheMakeba, makeba ma che bellaCan I get a oooheMakeba, makes my body dance for youNobody can beat the mama AfricaYou follow the beat that she’s gonna give youI need a smile you can loveMake it go, the sufferation of a thousand more'
Lyrics: Genius
