CULTURE
Beautiful melancholy Flash Entertainment continues its Regional Artist Spotlight initiative to champion regional music talent
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arning: listening to Michele’s music will likely bring tears to your eyes. It certainly did with us, and appears to be a running theme at most of her intimate concerts around the region. That’s just how Michele likes it anyway. The Dubai-based R&B meets neo soul singer creates music that she describes as ‘sulty and dreamy depression’. Probably not the kind of music you’ll want to listen to pre-brunch, but spot on if you’re feeling a bit emosh… How did you first get into music? I’ve been singing since I was three years old. My parents found out I had a nice voice and put me through vocal, piano and guitar classes. My first vocal coach wanted to train my voice to sing classical music and opera… that obviously did not stick. I always thought that I would be a cover artist or just someone who could ‘sing well’. I had major stage fright, which didn’t help my performance ambitions. But as I got older, I didn’t want to live life with regret, so I pushed myself and started going to open mics. It kind of grew from there… How would you describe the music that you make? I love to describe my music as sultry sadness. I try to squeeze the listeners’ hearts so tight they’d have to confront themselves and their feelings. I don’t think I
66_What’s On
MUSIC
fit into one genre but there’s a lot of influence from neosoul, jazz, dream pop and sometimes bossa nova. Who are the artists, or people, who inspire you? I look up to a lot of independent artists who are starting to make it big. I like to study them and learn from them. Artists such as Tanerelle, Alina Baraz, Galimatias, Col3trane, Joy Crookes, Rum.gold… I could
go on for days. I’m also very inspired by the artists in Egypt. The music scene there is really booming, and I look up to these artists and try to learn from them. What are your latest musical accomplishments? One of my latest releases All for me was added to a big Spotify playlist, which was extremely exciting. I also got played a few times on BBC’s ‘Introducing’, which was a
big win. Another personal accomplishment was when someone from Australia sent me a video of her and her husband at their wedding dancing their first dance to one of my songs. That was a shock in the best of ways. What is your creative process like? Has it changed since the pandemic? My process starts with a melody or a loop I get
