Voodoo Cello Imany

• 1 If You Go Away 03:54
• 2 Believer 04:43
• 3 Wonderful Life 04:38
• 4 I'm Still Standing 04:00
• 5 Les voleurs d’eau 03:34
• 6 The A Team 04:30
• 7 All The Things She Said 04:11
• 8 Like a Prayer 05:35
• 9 Total Eclipse of the Heart 04:37
• 10 Take Me To Church 04:27
• 11 Little Black Angels (Angelitos Negros) 02:51
• 12 Wild World 04:06
• 13 Wonderful Life (Stream Jockey Rework) 04:15
• Total Runtime 55:21

Info for Voodoo Cello

Nadia Mladjao can do anything. She carved a place for herself in a large Comorian family, where she always managed to have her say. She cut her teeth as a model in New York City before the calling from music was too strong to ignore. But Nadia would tap into true power, once she took the stage – under the name, Imany. She released two albums, The Shape of a Broken Heart (2011) and The Wrong Kind of War (2016), which blended soul and folk with incredible panache. Penning a hit, “Don’t Be So Shy”, as the girl power anthem for the film Sous les jupes des filles, directed by Audrey Dana. Imany also broke taboos around endometriosis while fighting alongside the ENDOmind association – a move inspired by her own personal journey. Imany spoke about the responsibility of the artist when she performed at the Victoires de la Musique awards. And now, surround herself with eight cellists for an album of cover songs she makes all her own. Once again, Imany takes center stage, never forgetting where she came from.

Eight cellists and a single voice has never been dared. A whim? Not in the least. Imany was first drawn to strings when she heard the Vitamin String Quartet’s bewitching tributes nearly ten years ago. For this project, Imany felt the cellos along with a simple vocal accompaniment would be more than enough. Prior to this stop, Imany undertook a string of projects and tours, gave birth, and experienced a burnout. The change of pace gave way to rest and the eventual creation of a brand-new project. Eight cellos are a multitude of possibilities between low and high notes: “Sometimes, you get the impression they’re brass instruments or electric guitars… Like they’re haunted.” Imany cast a spell on this fascinating and misjudged instrument using a set of cover songs. More like voodoo. And, because Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” sounds so good, the album is known as Voodoo Cello.

At 40, Imany stands more confidently and ready to take risks: “Since I’d managed to become a mother without putting aside my work, I decided to stop doubting. To accept the sacred feminine fire, not as a domination, but as a force to be reckoned with. What counts is what makes sense. And there’s nothing a woman can’t do.” Voodoo Cello is proof: an album sung, recorded, arranged, and produced by Imany herself and without the need for anything more than the cellists. The idea of a self-made woman? “It’s all a bit crazy!”, she admits. “The tracking is very complex: eight identical instruments, it’s technically quite difficult.

The songs were chosen from classics she’s long internalized, to more recent favorites: “What makes a good cover is when the song becomes your own. I approach the song with voice and guitar, find the key that suits me, I change the tempo… and I listen to the lyrics. I can’t sing words I don’t believe in.” For Imany, sometimes that meant making a light-hearted song deeper, or infusing certain melancholic tracks with more light. The magic come together thanks to a carefully crafted sound that feels spontaneous, direct, and raw without being harsh, crystalline without being polished. It all combines to create the kind of sound that as we listen, we smile, it touches or surprises us, we catch ourselves dancing or daydreaming…

Imany

Imany
Bis vor ein paar Jahren arbeitete Imany noch in New York als erfolgreiches Model, doch der Drang, ihrem Leben einen tieferen Sinn zu geben, wurde immer größer. Die Gesangsstunden, die sie noch während ihrer Modelkarriere nahm, machten sie spätestens mit ihrem Debütslbum "Shape Of a Broken Heart" (2010/ iTunes #2) bezahlt. Neben ihren gefühlvollen Songs über Liebe und Leid, Verletzungen und Hoffnung, Träume und Wünsche ist es vor allem ihre außergewöhnliche Stimme von unbeschreiblicher Tiefe, die Imany zu einer ganz besonderen Künstlerin unserer Zeit macht.

Auch das russische Remix Duo Filatov & Karas blieb Imany nicht verborgen und entdeckten in ihren Songs große Inspiration für ihre Remix-Neu-Interpretationen. Aktuell drückten sie Imanys Titel "Don't Be So Shy" ihren ganze besonderen Remix-Stempel auf und sehr bald schon hallte ihre Version zunächst vehement durch die Club Szene Russlands. Das brachte den Erfolg um diesen Song mächtig ins Rollen: "Don't Be So Shy" enterte die Top-Listen der Shazamcharts von Russland, der Türkei, Griechenland, u.v.m., setzte sich an die Spitze der iTunes-Charts und generierte auch auf youtube bereits über 21 Millionen Klicks. Aktuell rangiert der Song auf Platz 1 der offiziellen Deutschen Single-Charts und avanciert zum derzeit heißesten An- wärter auf den diesjährigen Sommerhit.

This album contains no booklet.