Into The Chic chatted with Alsarah about her latest Arabic-language album, Manara, released in September: a record that talks about migration and the singer’s personal story. She also shared a bit about her life in Brooklyn and what inspires her.
ITC: What’s the story behind your album?
Alsarah: It’s more like a second chapter, an exploration of East African pop. We went to Morocco last November (2015) to find inspiration and live together as a group in a house by the sea. We cooked together, ate together, walked on the beach together, and had tons of conversations. That’s how the album came to life.
This album also talks about immigration and what’s been going on for the past three years. It’s about the fact that being a migrant isn’t a permanent situation; it’s just a phase. To me, Manara is like a sonic chapter in the story of migrants.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Oh, everywhere! In the news, for example, but also in everyday life, in the music I listen to… I’m a big fan of psychedelic songs and retro Sudanese music.
Why sing in Arabic and not in English, the universal language?
The first reason is that I want my music to reflect where I come from. Arabic is the language I speak to myself in, in my head. And I wanted to make music that my family could understand and enjoy. I didn’t want it to feel foreign to them. I was born Sudanese and I’ll die Sudanese. I’m trying to build a bridge between the world I come from and the one I live in, where my family is. I’m not making music for the Western world, but for the place I come from.
Read the rest of the interview on Into The Chic, a Afrik-jeunes Entertainment publication, by clicking here.
