GRAMMY Award-nominated vocalist, songwriter and producer Malika Tirolien’s conscious lyrics and soaring vox are on dynamic display in this, her compelling new single “GROW” — available now.
“This song serves as a reminder to enjoy the process wherever you may be in your life,” Tirolien shares. “It’s about doing the best you can with what you can control.”
The fourth single to land from the Montreal-based artist’s newly released sophomore album, HIGHER, the 11-track LP is the second instalment in her tetralogy marking the elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. The series’ premiere offering, 2014’s Sur La Voie Ensoleillée, saw Tirolien’s powerful sonic poetry explore themes surrounding the Earth — it was about roots, and feeling grounded, she says, whereas HIGHER arrives as more spiritual and cosmic.
“HIGHER is like a map through the world of somebody’s mind,” Tirolien continues. “I see that person as a Black woman navigating between being a warrior, and wanting to cultivate her loving side at the same time. She’s struggling to find balance between her will to fight, and her surrender to love… The necessity to stay grounded, and the calling to elevate and fly.
“Her journey, which started with Sur La Voie Ensoleillée, is continuing with HIGHER — but she no longer walks, she levitates.”
Born in Guadeloupe and now based in Montreal, Quebec, Tirolien has garnered International attention throughout the last decade — including for her electrifying performance on Snarky Puppy’s GRAMMY Award-winning album Family Dinner for the track “I’m not the one,” and her self-produced, composed and written debut, Sur La Voie Ensoleillée (2014), which hit the Canadian iTunes R&B/Soul Top 5 charts.
She’s also the lead singer and co-leader of GRAMMY Award-nominated nine-piece supergroup BOKANTÉ alongside producer and musician Michael League — who also co-produced HIGHER alongside Tirolien.
