DUBAI: French-Algerian singer-songwriter Lolo Zouai posted a video for “Coquelicot,” the 10th track from her album “Reverie,” on Instagram this week, extending a summer of promotion for the record.
The post, captioned “Track 10. Coquelicot,” carries a heavily blue-tinted, grainy video built around extreme close-ups of the singer’s face. The song features French rapper Disiz, and an official video for it went up on her YouTube channel. Coquelicot is the French word for poppy.
The album “Reverie” runs to 14 tracks. “This record was made through three years of grief, growth and reflection … I had to lose myself to find myself again,” Zouai said when she dropped the album.
The album also features French rapper Dinos and singer Lous and the Yakuza. Its third track, “Holding On,” carries a video paying tribute to Zouai’s friend Hanna Rosa Hotchkiss, who died in 2021.
The record’s 13th track is “Desert Rose pt. 2,” a follow-up to the 2019 single Zouai described as a love letter to her Algerian family.
Born Laureen Zouai in France to a French mother and Algerian father, she moved to San Francisco at 3 months old and shot the original video in a village near Essaouira, Morocco. She writes in both English and French.
“This is a story I’ve needed to tell my whole life,” she said of the song.
Her music blends R&B, pop and alternative influences, and she has released work in both languages throughout her career.
The singer, who is based in New York City, released her debut album in 2019 and followed it with “PLAYGIRL” in 2022, the year a billboard for the record went up in Times Square.
Zouai, who has toured internationally, put out the single “3AM in San Francisco” in November and holds a songwriting credit on the Japanese debut of K-pop group NewJeans.
The album launch was built around a social media campaign across Instagram and TikTok that mixed behind-the-scenes footage with fashion imagery. Zouai has 293,000 followers on Instagram, where the “Coquelicot” post drew comments from US rapper Princess Nokia hours after it went up.
Zouai is due to perform at Blue Note Los Angeles on Aug. 28 and at Blue Note Jazz Club in New York on Sept. 9. She will play Salle Pleyel in Paris on Nov. 22.
