SHOUTS - Music from the Rooftops!

The artist, who has defiantly performed in treacherous places despite threats from authorities, is making history with her all-female team behind the production of her new album.

Thesupermat, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

“Nar” means fire in Arabic and that is exactly what Tunisian musician, songwriter and activist, Emel Mathlouthi, brings with her latest single. The following music video shows Emel encompassed by women; her colleagues, friends and fellow soldiers. “I am a soldier, I am a fighter, I am a bullet,” she sings in English and further covers topics of freedom and empowerment in the Tunisian language as well.

For the single, Emel teamed up with Mali’s first female Mandinka rapper, Ami Yerewolo, and speaking of the track she says that it’s “about taking back control of our lives, our story, our colour, our word. We’re building an army to take back women’s voices.“

After captivating her native audience in Tunisia she started performing around the world, at Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and Glastonbury Festival in the UK. Additionally, and defiantly, she has performed on stages in Palestine and Iran which, according to this Vogue article, she describe as a “turning point” for her.

“Performing in Palestine last summer, which is so hard to get into, meant the world to me because you meet people who just want to live life like everybody else. They just want to go to a concert and be happy… Their resilience was inspiring. Despite everything they’ve been through, they really teach you about life. It marked a turning point for me.”

Emel’s new album, MRA, will drop later this month and based on the latest single we’re all in for a treat.

Our spotlight today will be on a conscious musician out of New York City. Jon Davis is a classically trained artist that beliefs in the empowering side of mainstream music.

Jon told us via email how it is his goal to “to inspire people to connect to a greater inner spirit of positivity, and inner growth, and challenge the constructs that all commercial music has to be unidimensional and focus only on indulgence rather than love and growth.”

https://soundcloud.com/officialjondavis/grow

What issues drive you or motivate you to write a song?

I’m a big advocate for spiritual health, and mental wellness. I believe that mainstream music too often focuses on negative emotions, and reactivity. Life isn’t perfect and art has a responsibility to capture all layers of the experience; however people still need art that reflects hope, even in the expression of pain. I look to modern day artists like Sia, P!NK, and Lady Gaga who have managed to bridge the gap between the mainstream media and lyrical substance. I also pull a lot of my inspiration from Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson, and Freddie Mercury.

Both the substance of the music and substance of the artist inspires the listener to think creatively about about life. That to me is the ultimate accomplishment a musician can have, commercial success while still inspiring thought and substance in your music.

I focus on love and inner power in my music. I aspire to create music that communicates honestly to the listener, while shedding light on both the romantic and undesirable side of the journey to self discovery, the thrashing pain when dreams don’t manifest in the way we were promised they would as children, and the draw to continue pursuing an ideal even after defeat and disappointment.

Ultimately, my goal is for my music to push people to go inward and listen to the little voice inside more than the enormous and subduing voice of the collective, which is why there is a blend of commercial sounds mixed with “anthematic” and “rallying cry” inspirations. I try to always express my emotions openly while showing the inner struggle to push past the voices of doubt, shame, guilt, and feelings of unworthiness.

https://soundcloud.com/officialjondavis/i-will-live-on

Do you partake in any sort of activism outside the music?

I donate music to an organization called Songs of Love which writes custom music for terminally ill children. As a performer and writer, the most challenging thing to give away is energy and time, but it’s also the most impactful thing a person can give. Donating music for such a compassionate cause keeps me humble and pulls me out of the egocentric, and often negative reality of working in the music industry.

It reminds me that despite all the challenges, this whole profession is about touching people, even if only for 3 minutes, and that momentary disruption in the day to day can save lives. It brings us freedom from the confusion and disappointment of reality, and makes life more interesting, manageable, and ultimately conquerable.

Check out more of Jon’s music on his webpage: https://www.officialjondavis.com/music

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