Irma is a Cameroonian author, composer and performer. Revealed by Internet users through the participatory label MyMajorCompany, 416 producer Internet users bet on it in less than three days and the key, success, like that of its title I know. It has been around the world and has even been chosen by Google for its Chrome browser ad.
Today, after titles sung in English, Irma offers us something else with a mini-album of eight titles: Douala Paris.
franceinfo: With this album, you take the step of singing in French. What is going on ?
Irma: In fact, with The dawn, I was going, overall, already towards this kind of homecoming. It was not just a return to the sources at home, in Cameroon, but it was also a return to the sources with my mother tongue. It was super obvious that on these titles, it was going to be French.
We actually discover another Irma, the one who allows herself to be feminine. Does it feel good to let go?
It feels good. I know that I built myself a lot in opposition to this femininity, because when I was little, I told myself that everything related to femininity was going to be a source of weakness for me. Growing up, I realized that was the worst thing I could say to myself because my femininity is my strength. To discover that and to work in Cameroon too, with artists who allowed me to reveal that, it was magnificent.
You say very strong things in Douala Paris. You talk about the fact that you are a foreigner here, but a foreigner there too. Where is your home?
At the end of the song, I end up saying that it is in me. That’s kind of all we’re trying to find, all of us, in this pretty crazy world we live in. This kind of inner anchoring which is very difficult, which comes and goes. There is this kind of struggle that has always been inside me: who am I? Where am I from? In Cameroon, I am not African enough. In France, I am Cameroonian. By always wanting to define ourselves like that, with very specific, very framed things, we end up removing the essential, which is that, in fact, we are all these things.
Your family has always been very important to you. You wanted one of your sisters to listen to your music and suddenly you put it on the Internet to create a communication bridge between her and you, because you are very, very far away. It still says a lot about the importance of this family in your writing today.
My family has always supported me when it was not won, that is to say that in most African families, success goes through an academic path. So when I say I want to make music, I expect people to say no. My family has really always been my base, even when there is a sort of slump, or even more, between the second and the third album. I always felt that support.
Where does this love of music come from? What is the click?
It’s my childhood. My parents are a pharmacist and a biologist, but they have always, always put music at the center of everything.
“My father plays the guitar and always listened to a lot of jazz at home. My mother was a lover of French music, I think that’s where the mixture in my music comes from.”
It has always been part of my life. I remember a specific moment when my brother was watching a series on TV which, at the time, told the story of Michael Jackson’s childhood. There, I come across this scene where he sings in church a title called Climb every mountain, six years ago. I see this little boy singing and I say to myself: this is what I want to do!
You didn’t necessarily experience the success of your first albums well, so much so that you had this need to go to New York at some point to find yourself. It’s better today ?
It is going much better. I was very young. When it’s going fast, it’s something that can be very violent. We don’t really belong. And when it’s at a time when you’re building yourself up, it’s a bit complicated. I realized growing up that there was also a part of me that protected itself from that, because I think as a woman, as a human being, that we don’t deserve this stuff, the pretty Things. That’s what I say in my title black sun in my third album, sometimes you are your own executioner.
“I think I’ve freed myself from a lot of chains. I think I’m not afraid anymore.”
I would like to talk about the title Queen. I feel like that’s the summary of this mini album.
Yes. For me, it says what I discovered. I put a lot of layers on myself in my relationships and in relationships in general. And I understood while advancing that without the other, we cannot know each other. And Queen talks about dropping the mask you put on when you become an adult, leaving this vulnerability in the sight of the other, leaving yourself in this position where you say to the other: This is who I am. And accepting to be loved, it’s a bit my journey too.
What’s left of I know in your life ? Because this success weighed on you, you who love modesty and discretion.
It remains a pillar and I think it always will be. I always have a lot of fun singing it because, really, it reminds me of this child that I was and that I have no interest in forgetting.
Are the fears gone? The demons gone?
The fears fell and the demons too. They may come back in other forms, but here I have the impression that they are gone.
Proud of this album?
Very proud and I also think that’s what brings this serenity. It’s that I really feel like I’ve reconciled a lot of things and suddenly, I’m really very proud to have him listened to.
Irma will be in concert on July 31, 2022 in Lyon.