I had the great pleasure of attending the concert and spending some quality time this week with my beautiful and inspiring French-Camaroonian sisters of soul, Helene and Celia (AKA: Les Nubians). Since our first meeting in Paris nearly 10 years ago, these two amazing artists have become dear friends and a continued source of inspiration – through both their music and their spirits. They performed a great show, as they always do, at the Nokia Live in Los Angeles, to launch their West Coast tour. They have also both recently relocated from Paris to New York, so I hope we will get to see and hear more from them.
Having coined the phrase Afropean Hip Hop, Les Nubians is an R&B Grammy-nominated duo composed of sisters Hélène and Célia Faussart originally from Paris, and having lived between Carmaroon, Paris and Bordeaux, where they became known for their soulful vocal stylings and their commitment to poetry, music and the arts. Their debut album Princesses Nubiennes was released through Virgin records and went Gold in the US when it crossed over to urban radio.
Les Nubians became one of the most successful French–language musical groups in the U.S. Best known for their Billboard R&B Top Ten Single “Makeda“, their remake of Sade’s Taboo, and their Grammy nominated song “Je Veux D’la Musique” from their second album One Step Forward. Les Nubians were the 1999 Soul Train Lady of Soul Awards winners for Best New Artist, Group or Duo and received two NAACP Image Awards nominations in 2000.
My own musical collaborations with the girls began when I traveled to Paris in 2001 to record them for my Jungle Jazz multi-media project, along with French rapper John Bonzai. It was a week of good fortune in many ways, since I was surprizingly called back to Berlin immediately after the session to accept the Silver Bear Award for Best Short Film for Jungle Jazz from the Berlin International Film Festival.
Celia recently took a journey with me into the world of more traditional jazz by recording a French rendition of my song In Your Eyes at my studio in Los Angeles for my forthcoming Scenes in Jazz project, which features a collection of female vocalists on original jazz songs in an effort to raise money for music education programs for youth through the Thelonious Monk Institute.
As part of their continued commitment to the arts and culture, Helene and Celia have continued to work as creative directors for the Bordeaux summer arts festival, and created Echos, Chapter One in 2005, a CD and companion book featuring artists from France, and the U.S. performing poetry and music from the urban edge. In addition to inspiring their audiences with great music and dance, these divas of Afropean R&B and Hip Hop also use their stage as a platform speak about matters of social concern and raise global consciousness.
