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RISING FRENCH ARTIST THÉRÈSE CHALLENGES SOCIAL STRUGGLES IN NEW GENRE-BLENDING SINGLE ‘CHINOISE?’

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Today, 10th December, multi-faceted French-Asian artist Thérèse starts a powerful call to action with ‘Chinoise?’, the first taste of her upcoming EP set for release in Spring 2021 – STREAM ‘CHINOISE?’ HERE

 

The genre-blending song sees Thérèse breaking common stereotypes around Asians using pervasive popular cliches, while mixing French-influenced hip-hop, electro-pop and samples of traditional Chinese instruments including Pipa and Rubab, a Central Asian instrument widely used in the Xinjiang province of northwest China. Using six different languages – French, English, Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Vietnamese and Arabic – to express her often political lyrics, Thérèse says ‘Chinoise?’ is “a powerful call to action to challenge social struggles in France and all over the world to converge, to identify their common roots, to propose mobilization strategies and to reflect together on universalism”.

Part of a new generation of French electronic music artists mixing the power of bass music, the musicality of Hip Hop and the energy of club culture, Thérèse has established herself as figure of empowerment in the French-Asian community. ‘Chinoise?’ is the follow up to her debut single ‘T.O.X.I.C’which has seen the talented artist being selected for the 2021 Société Pernod Ricard France Live Music Prize the prize sets out in search of the very best in the independent French music scene.

 

As an activist, she has been fighting racism especially towards French Asians through her music and social media platforms, more recently COVID-19 fuelled the flames of anti-Asian sentiment in France with prejudice and racist slurs shocking the country’s Asian community. French Asians have been fighting back using the hashtag #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus (I’m not a virus), through her work with anti-racists associations such as Décolonisons Nous and Stop AsiaphobieThérèse has become one of their most radical voices on national French media, appearing on day time TV shows including ‘Quotidien’ on TMC/TF1 and ‘Info du vrai’ on Canal +.

 

Born in Paris, Thérèse is half Chinese, a quarter Lao and a quarter Vietnamese. Her parents arrived in France in the late 70’s, met in Paris and lived in different suburbs, Villejuif, Saint-Ouen, Bagnolet, Vitry sur Seine. She started playing piano when she was nine years old and attended the Conservatory before landing a well paid job as Product Manager at Kenzo ParfumsLVMH. One day she decided to switch and draw her own career path“as Missy Elliott recently said as long as you are breathing, it’s never too late… That’s the motto I want to follow”, she enthuses. Now she splits her time between music, styling for other French music artists including Sônge, and brands such as Nuxe and Fête Impériale, as well as modelling for empowering French labels Ysé and Superbe.

Vic

Editor / Writer / Producer For Drop the Spotlight