During this prestigious ceremony, the singer of Moroccan-Egyptian origin will be up against Olivia Ruiz, Christophe Mae, Faf Larage, and Shy’m.
Simple, kind, and gentle… Najoua takes this nomination as a reward. “For me, participating in the NRJ Music Awards is huge.”
In a unique universe with a true personality, this 25-year-old singer enchants her audience with her voice and her “spiritual” dance: Una bella “Stella”!
Her first single “Gabriel,” created with Christophe Casanave, is a hit! With her album, she has created her musical style, a style that distinguishes her from others. This artist with an angel’s heart who brings an “echo of happiness” hasn’t finished spreading her wings.
On Saturday, January 20, she will be at the NRJ Music Awards broadcast live on TF1. Before walking the red carpet in Cannes, Najoua Belyzel gave us an interview.
Nice-Premium: Najoua, thank you for welcoming us into your world, how would you describe it?
Najoua Belyzel: The world I am in is pretty much the same as yours, except that there are two of them. A world of my own, with my ideologies, my trends where I aim at youth, where I aim to rise. It’s a somewhat intimate spiritual thing with ambitions. An ideal world with desires, dreams of changing what is more or less wrong. When this kind of bubble bursts, fortunately, because I would be out of oxygen, I arrive in a world that is yours, a completely normal, earthly world. That’s why my album is called “Entre deux mondes, En Equilibre” (Between Two Worlds, In Balance). It’s about trying to find the right point between the two but also about trying to find oneself, to search for oneself. Many people say that during adolescence, you search for yourself, you find yourself… that a woman at 40 is where she feels best. I don’t believe in that at all. I think we search for ourselves until the end.
N-P: And how would Najoua Belyzel describe herself today?
N.B.: With one foot rooted in the earth with laurel leaves and a hand in the clouds. It’s kind of a graceful image but that’s a bit how I see things, my head in the stars, clouds, and feet well-rooted. But I’m not really down to earth. I have a thirst for culture, a thirst for history. I love old black and white films. I love old books, antiques, and at the same time, I try to be trendy based on what’s happening today, not really fashionable because we are always in fashion, everything that is out of fashion comes back. “Between Two Worlds, In Balance” is what I am… the world of reality and the world of dreams… the good, the bad… the masculine, the feminine…
N-P: Ying, yang
N.B.: Yes, that’s it, finding myself in the middle of these things. Things that can be totally opposite but also complementary because one without the other means nothing. For example, “Gabriel,” my first song talks about an ambiguity regarding the profession of faith and concerning homosexuality and bisexuality which are very trendy. Bisexuality is very current, homosexuality is evolving and the profession of faith has always existed and is part of my world because I am very religious. Gabriel’s music is very offset compared to the text. The text is more or less profound, at least for me, because it addresses important themes such as the quest for male or female sex in love and at the same time, the music has a rather fast rhythm. People, when they listen to this song for the first time, don’t particularly listen to the lyrics; they are more likely to move their hips, to dance.
N-P: How is your first album “Entre deux mondes, En Equilibre” composed?
N.B.: In the album, there are twelve tracks: four that represent the body, four the soul, and four others the spirit.
The four that represent the body, musically, will call us to dance on them like “Gabriel” “Stella” All these songs are rhythmic.
Then, for those that appeal to the soul, the music will be ballads. The texts will talk about important themes like “Rentrez au USA” which is an anthem to peace, like “Comme toi,” “L’écho du bonheur” which is a quest for love.
Then there are those that appeal to the spirit, which I call the tortured songs, like “Bons baisers de Paris,” the music, and text are special. Paris, city of light, beautiful city but when you arrive from the Province, everything is gray, everything is black, people aren’t smiling. In the Province, people say “Hello,” the baker smiles at you. In fact, this part is a kind of liberation of oneself. I free myself in these songs. “Docteur Gel” is also a tortured song because I talk about sexual abuse. The music is very beautiful, there are synths that appeal to suffering. This song is a message for today’s youth and children. If a twelve-year-old girl has a hard time addressing this subject and is a victim, I tell myself that maybe through my song, she will free herself from that pain, from that suffering.
“La berceuse” starts with “Papa, Maman, I hate you,” it’s also a tortured song. It appeals to the imagination and I imagine a newborn arriving in this world. He didn’t ask anyone for anything. When you think about it, we all come from a little drop, then the egg, then we grow and then we are born and the first thing when we arrive in this world, we cry, the child cries. In fact, in this song, I try to imagine everything that could happen in the head of the newborn. So there are people who have said “Najoua had problems with her parents,” not at all. It’s a song imagined by someone who never asked to be born. It’s a mix of stories, people who fight to have a child because they can’t have one and other couples who make children without love.
N-P: So now, let’s talk about what’s going to bring you to the Côte d’Azur, more exactly to Cannes, next Saturday: The NRJ Music Awards where you are nominated. Expected reward?
N.B.: Very unexpected. Very surprising. Yes, I was really surprised. I didn’t think about it at all, I’m not a calculator. When my manager told me this, I said “Wow”. I did not expect it at all. I am very happy. You know, an artist has an ego more or less enormous, mine is quite small for now, but this nomination touches me. Wow! I’m participating in the NRJ Music Awards, it’s important today, moreover, it’s the public voting. My message got through. I am among the Francophone Revelations, it’s nice, like when they gave me my platinum disc for “Gabriel,” it does something to me that I can’t explain, it’s inexplicable and intimate at the same time. Being nominated is a reward. Whether I win or not, it doesn’t matter. I have nothing more to gain. I’ve done what I wanted to do, an album as if it was the last but it’s not the last, the second one is in preparation. Participating in the NRJ Music Awards, wow, that’s already big. In fact, I’ve already won!
N-P: What do you think of your competitors?
N.B.: I think there’s room for everyone even though it’s very difficult. The doors are very narrow. It’s difficult to be heard. I think we all have a place, a chance, a path, and a destiny.
Shy’m is a revelation because she’s never done anything before.
I like to speak the truth.
Olivia Ruiz is not a revelation because she has already released a first album. She did the Star Academy. She is already more or less known. It’s not like she’s coming out of nowhere. Actually, she already has a support. For me, she has already won.
It’s difficult for me as it is for Shim’s who’s just arrived to compete with Olivia. For me, a revelation is something that comes like that, that we don’t know and that touches people. So of course Olivia Ruiz touches people but it’s not the first time.
Everyone deserves to be on this list, but at the same time, we must be careful about the title we give. The Francophone Revelation, if we look in the dictionary and if we listen to our hearts: Francophone Revelation, it’s something that is born, hatches and may the best one win! I also think there are beautiful people who are not on this list and I hope that one day they will be…
But to be at the NRJ Music Awards, it’s huge. I know, I have a somewhat paradoxical speech.
N-P: What is your motto?
N.B.: I have several but they are not mine. “The last will be the first,” “Carpe diem,” let’s live day by day because flowers fade very quickly. Then, these are not mottos: you have to try to rise to the maximum and to give of oneself, it’s important for me. It’s important for humanity too, and above all to have memory because I have the impression, I’m not going to be pessimistic, but I am realistic, we often make the same mistakes. When I watch the news, we always talk about war… You have to try to have an elephant’s memory and move forward. It’s quite spiritual and at the same time down to earth.
N-P: I’m going to say a word and you’re going to associate it with a word.
N.B.:
Gabriel: Angel
Angel: It’s difficult because I’m a very religious person… God because he’s his messenger
Paris: Best regards
Côte d’Azur: In the movie “To Catch a Thief” with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly
Christophe Casanave: A psychedelic genius
Music: Timeless
N-P: To finish, if I give you a feather, what would you write on our score?
N.B.: With the feather, I write SOUL because I think that’s what remains and what governs, even if we often say it’s the conscious or the unconscious, it’s the soul and that’s what will remain at the end. At birth when we are in the womb of the matrix, I think that what is first infused spiritually, is the soul and at death, I think that what rises, is the soul.
With the soul, we find love and friendship. These are two feelings and two very important emotions in human relationships.
Official Website: www.najouabelyzel.com
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