In collaboration withNikeBased in Brooklyn, the young Franco-Algerian R'n'B singer is preparing to take 2019 by storm. She talks to us about her passion for vintage style and French thrift stores - but always wearing Nike Air Max Dia! –, his stage fright and… his taste for baguettes.
By Kasia Hastings
"Before my first tour last summer, I was literally scared to death," says 23-year-old Lolo Zouaï. An astonishing admission from an artist at the dawn of a great career. However, the anxieties of the young Franco-Algerian singer were short-lived: the places were all sold out in no time, to her great surprise. "At the end, I didn't have a new title to sing on stage, so I let the public choose. It was so crazy that I started crying," she explains. Sitting in a concert hall in Brooklyn – black jacket, gray pants tightened at the ankles and Nike Air Max Dia, feet quietly propped up on a stool – Lolo Zouaï looks really relaxed for someone about to start a tour headlining. A spirit that can be found in his songs, a bittersweet mix of cool R'n'B and pop, object of a real cult, including with Gigi Hadid.
Her sexy tomboy style and the number of her views on Instagram quickly elevated her to the rank of fashion muse. Whether she's running – a way for her to train before her tour – or on stage wearing the perfect combo of vintage pieces associated with her Nike Air Max Dia, the mix of second-hand finds of classic French fashion and platform sneakers by Lolo Zouaï has a large number of fans.
"In general, I hunt for almost all my clothes. The most classic and chic come from France – I love to wear oversized men's jackets. It all depends on my mood. If one day I don't feel like talking to no one, I wear all black. But since I've been wearing a lot of colors lately, the Air Max Dia's go really well with my outfits. They're really great with a jacket or even a dress, with jogging or baggy jeans, or the overalls that I like to wear when I work in the studio", explains the young woman.
She left France for San Francisco with her parents at the age of three months, and grew up on the West Coast. At 19, she moved to New York, where she worked as a hostess at the Llama Inn, a Peruvian restaurant in Brooklyn. There, she says, her music "starts to make noise". Less than four years later, she bought her first apartment, was nominated for the Grammy Awards for Still Down, the song by HER which she co-wrote, and had just collaborated with Dev Hynes/Blood Orange for Jade.
Lolo Zouaï is also focusing on her upcoming 22-city tour of the United States – first date in Boston, in April – which, she says, required months and months of rehearsal. On the program of his preparation, among other things, running to regulate his breath, without forgetting to drink tea and juice to stay hydrated. But sometimes, on tour, funny things happen that you don't expect.
"One night on stage, someone handed me a baguette after I posted a photo of me having breakfast with a baguette on my Instagram and captioned 'BBE – Big Baguette Energy'. The photo went viral, and suddenly, I thought I was dying of laughter when someone brought me one during the concert!”, she says.
And his plans? "I really want to get back to the trumpet. I played for a few years." We hope to hear him on his next album, which we impatiently await the release later this year.
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