Born between the walls of his room, hence his title in English Bedroom walls, the first album of the singer November Ultra meets a good echo, recently consecrated by the Joséphine prize, awarded by artists. This disc was released in the spring and since then the public has been gaining the halls, touched by the delicate pop/folk and the celestial voice of this Frenchwoman with a stage name inspired by her month of birth and the mini-album Nostalgia, Ultra by American Frank Ocean.
The 33-year-old singer-songwriter is currently performing concerts to unveil this album. A kind of “personal diary“, as she told AFP, sung mainly in English, with some verses in Spanish, the language of her maternal grandfather, as in the song Soft & tender.
“It’s pretty crazy, it’s a very personal album, but music has that magic: our lives, memories, who we are, all of a sudden find a universal echo with the people who come to the concert“, remarks the thirty-year-old, from a modest background (worker father, mother caretaker of a building) in the Paris region.
“I wondered how much Bedroom Walls could be transmitted live; I realize that at each concert, it’s a room that is recreated somewhere“, adds the artist who spent four years making his record, after having passed through a group, Agua Roja. “It’s funny, for a long time I didn’t want to leave my room and now I can’t wait to take this room on a journey.“.
The musician who describes herself as “introverted, shy, left in society“appears very comfortable on stage, creating a bond with the public, with a few welcome touches of humor between two melancholic titles. “Long live music! It helps me to function better and it amazes my relatives, like my mother who can’t believe it, she who had to force me to go buy a baguette at the bakery so much I was afraid to meet people there“, she smiles.
Those who have seen her on stage know that this is her place, for a long time. “She’s going to explode everything, for me she’s a great diva in the noble sense, she has the voice of an angel, of a guide”comments for AFP the rapper Aloïse Sauvage, who invited November Ultra to make an appearance on her future album Savage (October 7).
November Ultra, also nicknamed “Nova”, was moved to receive the Josephine Prize during a ceremony-concert in public at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique: “my peers liked my album, it’s strong, incredibly touching“.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_bxIli5uT0
This new musical award, which takes its name from Josephine Baker and the Dare Josephine by Alain Bashung, was created by Christophe Palatre and Frédéric Junqua, two veterans of the music industry who dreamed of an alternative to the Victoires de la Musique. The jury included artists such as Imany, Oxmo Puccino or L’Impératrice.
“We’ve been waiting for a prize like this for a long time, where the vote is done by artists – who can also be beatmakers or sound engineers – on the model of the Goncourt prize”, rejoices the singer Keren Ann, president of the jury. Keren Ann portrays November Ultra, winner of the first edition, as a musician “at the origin of a very beautiful artistic, personal and authentic proposal“.