Grammy award-winning pop star-Seinabo Sey has been slowly making waves in the music world. Her new single, ‘Breathe’, is making rounds in all spheres of late. The new single chronicles her experience during her vacation in Dakar, Senegal. It is an inspirational and breathtaking song, even professional singers get to that point in time where they don’t know what they are doing.
For almost a year, Sey toured with Swedish hip-hop duo Afasi & Filthy’s Herbert Munkhammar (Afasi), where she found herself performing as a sidekick rapper for his other music group, Maskinen (Swedish for machine).
In a recent interview, the 27-year-old Grammy award sensation stated; “I was feeling kind of lonely and a little out of place. Everyone speaks French and Wolof there, and I don’t. Still I felt like I was supposed to be there. I took a paper and pen and wrote down exactly why I wanted to be there and why I liked being there and the words just came out in the simplest form.”
Like father, like daughter, Sey’s late father, Maudo Sey, was an accomplished Gambian musician as a drummer for afro-pop band, Ifang Bondi.
He also sang in three languages- Wolof, Mandinka and English- and dabbled in some acting, starring in Lars von Trier’s Manderlay in 2005.
“My parents really instilled in me that anything is possible. I understand now what a gift that is, that they’ve never said I can’t do things. They’re definitely the reason I make music,” she said.
Being free as a black woman was the inspiration behind the music video of ‘Breathe’. “There’s so many things that we black women have to go through. Everything in our lives from explaining our hair-dos, to not finding our foundation colours,” said the award-winning singer.
She visited The Gambia earlier on and shot the artsy-looking music video for her latest single, together with an all-female cast which included some of her childhood friends.
Wearing huge colourful tulle dresses, Sey wanted to represent how black women shouldn’t care about how they look and be free.
“The music videos meant to represent an abstract place where women can be free to be honest.”
