Lady Ele pulling her own strings
Violinist finds home in Jamaica, playing tropical hand with classically trained fingers
Published:Wednesday | March 10, 2021 | 12:08 AMStephanie Lyew/Gleaner Writer
Sweden is home base for Eleanore Hansson, a classically trained musician who has gone through several transformations in her career and taken numerous flights before landing in Jamaica. In Hansson’s childhood home, the sounds of generational icons like reggae pioneer Bob Marley, two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Rod Stewart, classic soul sensation Stevie Wonder, and one of America’s leading vocalists and bestselling songstress of all time, Whitney Houston, were commonly heard on vinyl, setting the tone for her interests.
“When I was a child, I often listened to the records my mom played; Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds was the first reggae song I was introduced to,” she said. “It was summertime … I was in the living room of the apartment, which was on the fifth floor, and upon hearing the song, it made me dance. A simple six-year-old girl, but I felt the vibrations and allowed them to take over me.”
She started her formal music education at eight years old – the violin being her main tool for expression. Shortly thereafter, Lady Ele, the sobriquet she aligns her musical style and persona with, played in orchestras.
“Around my teenage years is when I ventured more into vocals than violin. I started singing and performing as a solo act, but it happened that I was being hired to sing background vocals for other acts back home,” the musician-turned-recording artiste shared. She names Swedish artistes like Carola Häggkvist and Sussie Eriksson as major influences.
“Once music got hold of me, its grasp only intensified,” she said, reflecting on becoming a musician. And though a deep chasm seems to exists between the music she prefers and fuses, Lady Ele is untiring as she pulls her own strings.
She said, “Music to me is the expression of the soul of the creator, and it is genre- and language-free. Classical music is well-structured music; likewise dancehall, it has structures, too, that I love. I grew up in a multicultural family with a Swedish mother, my father being Tunisian, and my brothers have South American and Cuban ties, so I was always exposed to music from all over the world, and when I hit the age of going out to dances, dancehall was always played. Naturally, it became a genre I explored.”
Before the stratosphere of dancehall, she made stopovers in the US to pursue music in the complex and varied streets of Hollywood, where she performed with Stevie Wonder and laid down song lyrics with Patrick ‘Sleepy’ Brown and earned an NAACP Image Award nomination.
FOLLOWING DREAMS
“It was either go with my dream 100 per cent or just stay in my country. So I focused really hard on taking the steps to follow my own true vision of being a solo artiste,” she said. “My identity as a singer and musician has not changed; however, I have grown as a vocalist, performer and writer, and so my music has developed into what it sounds like today.”
Lady Ele’s sound is described as tropical R&B, and last year, FOX News crowned her ‘queen’ of the neoteric genre, which is a fusion of rhythm and blues grooves, tropical cadences and message filled lyrics with upbeat emotion.
She shared, “When I teamed up with Grammy Award-winning producer Sean’ Young Pow’ Diedrick, he wanted me to come out of my box of ‘90s R&B. He gave me fresh dancehall and reggae music to work with, which seemed to give me the kick I needed, but I can’t say I do straight dancehall.”
Lady Ele says she recognised the wonder of creating music as an art and decided to take play a different type of tune. Her latest album, After 8, features her hit single You & I, produced by power couple Brian Kennedy and Angelique Cinelu, which earned her two placements on television in America. The music delivers inspirational messages with songs about love and relationships, and chronicles her own story of following her heart and living her dream.
Stockholm in Sweden, London and Los Angeles remain the top three markets where her music has received the most exposure, but in a constantly evolving world and industry Lady Ele moved to Jamaica, which she looks at as a developing country, rather than its description as a Third-World country, for an equable and spiritual life.
“I’ve been to the parties and worked with the celebrities, the best of the best in Hollywood, so many didn’t expect it (the relocation), but I’m grateful to be here. On the flip side, I’ve also been there as a broke student, paying my dues, working to make my dream a reality, observing from a distance what Hollywood life can do to others,” she said, adding that after 10 years there, she was searching for more. “I wanted more time, less traffic, more nature, less hectic, more music from the heart, more time with my family. I feel more in touch with myself when I’m here, and so I know I am stronger and better here. Whether First or Third World, Jamaica is my home in the world; it is not new to me because I am part of a Jamaican family.”
She recently did her first virtual concert for Villa Exodus Retreat in Runaway Bay, but is itching to do more.
“I just want to get out and perform. In spite of everything, I don’t see challenges; I see opportunities to grow. One opportunity is to offer the open-minded ears my music, which is meant to be uplifting,” Lady Ele concluded.