Wednesday 15 January 2014

Voice of the Week: Queen Ifrica



How I found out

It's actually quite funny how this happened: I picked up my dad's iPad and opened his Spotify account. The last thing he had done on his Spotify was do a search on Queen, and while the search obviously brought up the Queen, it also revealed various artists called Queen Something – including Queen Ifrica, whom I then checked up purely out of impulse. She turned out to be a reggae and dancehall artist, which was very interesting because Bob Marley is pretty much the only reggae singer I've been familiar with, and I really enjoy listening to him.

Commentary

Reggae is a very male-dominant genre of music, but Queen Ifrica has managed to cut out a territory for herself. While many of her songs, true to the traditions of reggae, express social criticism (such as Streets Are Bloody and To Serve And Protect, with themes of street violence and police brutality respectively), she doesn't hesitate to go for some lighter themes either. Though some pieces are, for the lack of a better description, a bit too reggae/dancehall-ish for my taste, others stray a bit further out of that style. So all in all, there's some nice variety within Queen Ifrica's catalogue, and her voice is very mellow and nice to listen to. Unfortunately, she is also anti-gay and expresses this view in a very uncomfortable manner in her song Keep It To Yourself.

Favourite songs

Lioness On The Rise


Calling Africa


I would listen to this music when...

I want to remember what summer feels like

Random lyric sample

I see you pass my way
Each and every day
Could you stop just once is all I'm asking
'Cause I can't seem to help myself
There's something about the way you walk
Oh I wish that we could talk
(Far Away, album Montego Bay)

Stars ★★★

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