Interview by Yohann Ruelle.
We know Keiona the queen of the drag, Keiona the dancer and now, make way for Keiona the singer!
Music is a passion that I have in very young since in fact. Today, I can say that I make a homecoming.
Is it the drag that brought you to music?
No way ! I always wanted to make music. The art of the drag, everything that is hair, make-up and wigs, it came after! I just made the two converge with the best timing I have now, in terms of visibility. Music is really very young.
Who did you have posters in your room?
(She laughs) Ohlala …
You can tell me everything!
I had, yes. I had an Aaliyah poster, I had Christina Aguilera, I also, finally, the Destiny’s Child rather. I was very intrigued by these pop-R & B icons that I listened to a lot. Brandy in this case, singers with velvet voices. These are people who made me want to make music. Not necessarily to do the same as they, but rather in what they represented and how they were seen and perceived. We were already in a universe of Diva. I already wanted to exist in a very diva way!
The Dailymotion Player is in charge …
It is these figures that allowed you to say “it’s possible” when you started in the drag?
It was a whole journey because yes, there was this desire to exist and to create a female character. I was able to create it in the ballroom. That’s why I invented it! I invented Keiona to participate in balls. With all the different themes we have in this art, Keiona was able to test lots of different things very quickly. I can say that I have already tested all hair colors. (Laughs) It’s a lot of maintenance! I thought there was a different development on stage, when I performed and in the way of reacting people when I was in Keiona. This is what made me want to go towards makeup, the wigs and therefore the drag. I felt a power that I had previously felt as Kevin.
Let’s talk about your single “Watch Me”. If you could summarize it in three words, which one would it be?
I never change. This is what I sing in the song: “Phenomenon, feminine, fatal”! But in real life if I really have to talk about the single, I would say it is an ode to the Badho. Even if it’s more than three words.
How was this song born?
The song, she was born a few months ago. It took a long time to find what we wanted to do, even if the message was already there. It took a long time to find the sound for the way we wanted it to sound. I worked with Sutus on the song and Liam, my image director. He is not at all a musician but he brought his touch by advising me because he knows me very well. He knows a lot about me and sometimes we need to have this human mirror, people who know us to say: “If you say that like that, if you do it like that, if it sounds like that, it can be better for you”. Because there are things you can’t see yourself, you have dead angles. It was therefore a collective work that spread over almost 4-5 months. I am quite happy with the result!
After “Dance with the Stars”, a family entertainment program on TF1, you could have surfed on this wave by offering mainstream pop, more generally focused. However, you made a different choice. For what ?
For me, going to this program on TF1 was a challenge and at the same time it was necessary. I had to be seen there, that I also exist there, to show that we can be everywhere, with everyone, and show that I had as much talent as the others. Even more! (Laughs) The choice to touch the kind of music I make is really very personal. Music is what I want to do in the long term so I must be authentic and faithful to myself, including in my musical choices. I must be able to listen and recover my piece and say to me: “Ok, I really did what I wanted to do”. Whether some people like or that people do not like, me my choice it is sincere and honest. I could have actually had yes, making songs that will necessarily work and be loved by a greater number. But you have to see beyond. I largely prefer to have 1,500 people who will follow me faithfully and encourage me in everything I do that let’s say 4 million people who will be there for 3 months.
Behind the “Bad Bitch Energy” of the song, there is also a message to assert oneself for yourself?
Exactly. When I write a piece, you have to rhyme, it must be singing, dancing, but there are lots of moments when you can create double meaning. As an artist, we have this power where we are going to write something that will be too cool but at the 5th listening, you will be in mode “Ah! Ah ok, okay, I see”. And that’s a bit like the delirium of “Watch me”. At the first listening, we are worthwhile and the more we listen, the more we say to ourselves: “Ah but it is serious! It is too true”. You have to listen to several times to fully understand all the words, grasp the double meaning in the verses, and even in the chorus. When I say ” When I’m working I do it very well », I place myself as an example. It is also a way of calling people to come and rally to me.
Is it a way to rewrite your own rules?
That’s it, that’s it. You have to codify your lifestyle a little, today everything is very very quickly. You go on a bomb and you actually go! That’s this thing. Many people tell me for example: “When I’m in the gym and listening to” Watch me “, it gives me a fishing, it relaunches me in my series”. And me, it makes me super happy because if this song can create desire, motivation or even discipline in people, it’s great!
So you invite us to dancefloor. What do clubs and nightclubs represent for you as a queer person?
It is a means of expression, it is a meeting place for many people of our time which, for example, had no places to find themselves. For many people, it was not possible to do it in public so dancefloor obviously it is a safe space, a space of expression, a space of meeting and even communion. If my song makes people dance, I’m for!
What was the moodboard for the clip for “Watch Me”?
The inspirations are retro-futuistic. We see it in terms of styling when the video begins, all the scientists who are working to work on the Keiona project have a well -defined style. In fact, we see a whole ERA, they are very young, very modern but at the same time we are on something quite retro, even in the color palette, everything is quite neutral, there are a lot of pastel with a few bright colors here and there. We touch the total retro-futurist! The vision is 100%.
Are there any other singles to come?
HMM … The rest there immediately, yes there is a next single that arrives very soon. I wanted to clip “Watch me” because this team really gave an incredible rendering to the video. Thanks to them! They made it going beyond the vision, it was full of ideas to add. Me behind, it makes me want to continue! So indeed there is a next single that arrives, and for the rest … we’ll see! (Laughs) For the moment, I’m really focused on music. I have the opportunity to work with great people in the studio and out of the studio, so I’m fully in this adventure.
Could we see Keiona sing a walk?
Personally for the moment … I don’t see in this style. It is very beautiful the ballads, the variety and all that. But I think that I have an advantage that other artists do not have, in any case in France, it is the scenic presence and the dancer’s talents that I have. So we will have, I think, songs that will often move.
Your ultimate goal as a performer and singer, what would it be?
Oh my God! Can we dream? I still try to dream big. So I’m going to say … I don’t know the capacity of the rooms, but I want to make a large room. Why not a zenith? Come on, why not a Bercy? It would be canon. I already have the vision: the lights go out, I arrive from the ceiling … (Laughs) When you dream big, you have to stand ready, you never know huh!
