The last time we spoke to Sabrina Bellaouel was over 2 years ago when she plunged us into her world of sultry R&B with her EP Libra. Now, the French-Algerian star shares her anticipated debut album, Al Hadr, with a previously unheard track, Jah, out now on the seminal French label, InFiné. The thirteen-track album features collaborations with dance producer Basile3, experimental club DJ and writer Crystallmess, jazz musician Monomite and pop singer Bonnie Banane, among others. In this latest project, the artist channels her feelings and pours out the energy of a strange period in her life releasing all of this emotional turmoil.
“I feel like I'm on the verge of something bigger than me that I can't control,” says the artist, who has more than thirty thousand monthly listeners on Spotify. “I’m like a warrior, dirtied and wounded, leaving the battle to find a peaceful field ahead,” she replies when asked about her new album, Al Hadr, which mirrors Bellaouel ’s contemporary self. This new release has been written and recorded over a period of several years and maintains one of her personal hallmarks, the language of faith and spirituality as self-love. A mix of inspirations to which harmonies are sung and rhymes are spoken in English, French and Arabic are added, exploring love and identity.
To this interesting mix of references and sources of inspiration, she also adds the component of astrology, which inspired her 2020 EP, Libra. “It brightens my artistic vision and is a key to unlocking my character,” she says. Born, raised and based in Bagneux, outside the southern periphery of Paris, Bellaouel lives between worlds. And that synergy between different worlds that feed each other resulting in a masterful formula can be noticed in the different tracks that shape her new EP.
To this interesting mix of references and sources of inspiration, she also adds the component of astrology, which inspired her 2020 EP, Libra. “It brightens my artistic vision and is a key to unlocking my character,” she says. Born, raised and based in Bagneux, outside the southern periphery of Paris, Bellaouel lives between worlds. And that synergy between different worlds that feed each other resulting in a masterful formula can be noticed in the different tracks that shape her new EP.
