ALA.NI – Sunshine Music

Today, Paris-based singer/songwriter ALA.NI released Sunshine Music via No Format Records.

Alongside the release, she shared a powerful music video for “TIEF”, which tells a story of generational greed and calls for reparations.

When asked about the inspiration behind “TIEF”, ALA.NI said “This has a kind of ‘Tango Bolero’ feel and was partially inspired by The Mighty Sparrow’s Slave from the 1960s – a song about being taken from Africa. The conversation about reparations is gaining momentum, with countries like Germany starting to return stolen artifacts. But whether it’s the Benin Bronzes, the Elgin Marbles, or the Kohinoor Diamond, there has to be a point where these precious goods are returned to their rightful owners.” She continues, “Beyond that, there’s the question of generational trauma and the accumulation of one-sided wealth. Those past crimes against humanity have to be compensated if we’re ever to be truly equal.”

Sunshine Music includes the previously released singles “This Is Why” and “Ton Amour.”

Written in the throes of a frigid Paris winter, Sunshine Music hums with the memory of the heat of her two and a half year sojourn in Barbados, Grenada and Jamaica. The album stitches together a tapestry of influences from calypso, jazz, bossa nova and the great postwar songbook, threaded together by ALA.NI’s singular voice and sensibility. The artist also reaches outwards into broader political territory: calling for reparations, confronting the legacy of colonial theft and weaving personal experience into cautionary tales about narcissism and survival.

Born to Grenadian parents and raised in London, ALA.NI comes from a storied musical background, her great-uncle being Leslie ‘Hutch’ Hutchison, an infamous cabaret icon of the pre-WWII era. Since emerging with her debut You & I in 2016 – a self-produced set of exquisitely restrained torch songs that earned her a performance on Later… with Jools Holland and a Tiny Desk Concert – ALA.NI has built a reputation as a distinctive voice beyond easy classification. Her 2020 follow-up ACCA layered beatbox and vocal textures into dense, intricate arrangements, drawing contributions from figures like LaKeith Stanfield and Iggy Pop. Along the way, she has collaborated and performed with artists as diverse as Mary J. Blige, Blur, Nitin Sawhney, Andrea Bocelli, Chassol and Jon Batiste.

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