Jain (singer)

Jain was born on 7 February 1992 in Toulouse, France. The Occitan singer travelled the world to follow the professional requirements of her father: She left France at age 9 for Dubai, where she spent three years; then lived for four years in Congo-Brazzaville, which she credits for her taste for danceable melodies; and then spent a year in Abu Dhabi, before moving to Paris where she started a pre-art-school foundation course. These trips influenced her musical style. She also learned how to play drums in Pau, Arabic percussion in the Middle East, and musical programming in Congo.[2]

Jain began composing demo tracks in Pointe-Noire, Congo-Brazzaville. There she met Mr. Flash, who introduced her to musical programming. She then published her demo tracks on MySpace, where she was noticed by Dready, who became her manager and remains so today. Yodelice also discovered these tracks and invited Jain to meet him in Paris. They began to work together, and Yodelice helped to launch her career.[3]

Jain was a supporting artist for Yodelice's tour.[4] They appeared together on the television show Taratata in 2013 and performed a duet cover of "Redemption Song".[5]

Yodelice became her producer and worked on her first EP, Hope. It was released on 22 June 2015 and included four songs including the single "Come" which met with considerable success in France and Spain. A music video for "Come" was released on 2 June 2015 to Jain's official YouTube channel. In November 2016, "Come" was certified Diamond in France.[6] The song has also been used as a jingle by the Polish television channel Polsat[7] and in 2017 it was featured in the American horror comedy web television series Santa Clarita Diet.

Jain performed at the 2015 Solidays Festival, the BIG Festival (Biarritz International Groove) in Biarritz and Bebop Festival.[4][8]

On 21 September 2015, Jain revealed the cover of her debut album Zanaka.[9] "Zanaka" means "child" in Malagasy, and the title is a tribute to her mother who is of Franco-Malagasy origin. The album's release date was announced as 6 November 2015 along with the track listing on 8 October 2015.[10] It included 10 songs including the singles "Come" and "Makeba". Makeba was used on a Levi's commercial which showed dancers (wearing the jeans) in an ethnic beat setting. On 9 October 2015, the album's second track "Heads Up" was released as a pre-order bonus.[11] It was followed by "Hob" on 19 October 2015.[12] Zanaka was certified gold in February 2016 for sales exceeding 50,000 copies in France.[13] In December 2018, it was certified diamond in France for sales exceeding 500,000 copies.[6][14] Zanaka was later released in the United Kingdom and the United States on 21 October 2016.[15][16][17] It was preceded by the release of "Heads Up" and "Mr Johnson" as pre-order bonuses on 8 October 2016 and 14 October 2016 respectively.[18][19] In 2016, she was one of the nominees at the Victoires de la Musique Awards in the category "Album Révélation" for Zanaka.[20] On 25 November 2016, a deluxe version of Zanaka was released.[21] It added the songs "City" (originally from the Hope EP), "Son of a Sun" and "Dynabeat" as well as an extended version of "Come" and two remixes.[22]

A music video for the single "Makeba" was released to Jain's official YouTube channel on 30 November 2016. The music video was nominated for Best Music Video at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018.[23]

On 1 February 2017, she performed "Come" on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[24] On 25 April 2017, she performed "Makeba" on Later... with Jools Holland.[25][26]

On 10 July 2017, a music video for the song "Dynabeat" was released to Jain's official YouTube channel.[27]

On 3 August 2017, she performed at Chicago's Lollapalooza Festival.[28][29]

On 25 May 2018, "Alright" was released as the lead single from her second studio album Souldier, which was released on 24 August 2018.[30][31] A music video for "Alright" was released on 25 June 2018. "Alright" peaked at number 6 in France, spending three weeks in the top 10.[32] In 2018, "Alright" was the 51st biggest selling single of the year in France.[33]

The album's title, cover and tracklist were announced on 29 June 2018 and it was made available for pre-order along with "Star" as a pre-order bonus and promotional single.[34][35][36][37] The album's title is a play on words between 'soldier' and 'soul'. The song "Star" is about the position of young women in the music industry.[38] On 17 August 2018 "Souldier" was released as the album's second promotional single.[35][39] The song was inspired by the Orlando nightclub shooting and describes a soldier who seeks redemption.[40] The album was a commercial success, particularly in Jain's native France, where it debuted atop the charts and sold over 150,000 copies.[41] Furthermore, Souldier was the 45th best selling album of 2018 in France.[42]

On 8 October 2018, "Oh Man" was released as the album's second single.[43][44] A music video for the song was released on 21 December 2018. It was filmed at the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.[45]

In April 2019, Jain performed at Coachella.[46] On 19 April 2019, she released the single "Gloria".[47][48] The song personifies glory and describes it as something that tries to charm and divert attention from what is essential. Rolling Stone described it as "an upbeat dance track that describes the perils of fame and promotes being true to one’s own creativity".[46] On 7 June 2019, Jain performed "Gloria" as well as "Makeba" and "Heads Up" at the opening ceremony of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup.[49][50]