nine¾

I've written a little piece about Nicole and her album ANA in my national thread, so I'd love it if you gave it a read. You might find it interesting too!

190. BJSC - ENNEA Nicole Sabouné - Healing You Nicole Sabouné is a Swedish singer-songwriter, born in 1991 in Sölvesborg and raised in Lund. She currently lives in Stockholm. She began her music career in 2012 and first caught the attention of a wider Swedish audience through her participation in The Voice. From the very beginning, she stood out for her distinctive vocals and somewhat unconventional musical sensibility and aesthetic. Healing You is taken from her recently released album, titled ANA. If you think the title ANA is a reference to a woman, you're mistaken, and I think you'll find the story behind Nicole and her own ANA quite fascinating, so I'd really love for you to give it a read. The title ANA (أنا) actually means "I" in Arabic. And that simple word carries the entire concept of the album: Who am I? Where do I come from? And how much does my heritage define who I am? Nicole grew up in Sweden in a family where her father was of Lebanese descent. However, she wasn't really aware of that part of her family history during her childhood. Her father spoke French, and for a long time Nicole believed he was French. She thought of herself as half-Swedish, half-French. It wasn't until she met her paternal grandmother that she began discovering that her family actually came from Lebanon. Her grandmother spoke Arabic, which was one of Nicole's first real clues that there was an entire part of her heritage she knew almost nothing about. What's particularly interesting is that her father didn't want to talk about his past and had kept his Lebanese background a secret. According to Nicole, he refused to speak Arabic and never really taught her either French or Arabic, so neither language became part of her upbringing. In a later interview, Nicole admitted that she felt angry with him because of this, feeling as though an important part of her identity had been kept from her. She subsequently became increasingly interested in exploring her roots, learning Arabic and asking her father questions, but even then, he remained reluctant to talk about it. She tried to understand why he was so distant from his own heritage, but never received a complete explanation. At some point, she decided to stop waiting for her father to tell her his story and instead discover the country her family came from for herself. In 2024, she visited Lebanon for the very first time. During her stay, Nicole met several members of her extended family, including her aunt and uncle, with whom she has since developed particularly close relationships. The entire experience was deeply emotional and inspiring for her, eventually leading her to create the introspective album ANA. When I stumbled upon ANA a few days ago, I genuinely thought it was one of the most beautiful albums I'd heard in years. I honestly can't remember the last time an album affected me quite so deeply, and what's even more interesting is that I hadn't even known the story behind it at the time. The closing moments of the album, featuring a man reciting something in Arabic, are particularly moving. While working on ANA, Nicole also wanted to involve her father. She asked him if he could record something in Arabic that she might potentially use in one of the songs. He said he would think about it and Nicole wasn't expecting much. Then, one day, while she was out Christmas shopping, she received a voice message from him. She opened it and heard her father reciting a poem he had written himself, in Arabic. But it wasn't just any poem. It was his poem about his love for Lebanon. He spoke about how beautiful his homeland had once been and how much it had been destroyed. The poem also expressed hope that one day it might recover, while acknowledging that it might never be quite the same again. Nicole later described in an interview just how deeply the recording affected her. She said she literally stood there crying, completely overwhelmed by what she had just heard. For a moment, she thought that perhaps this was finally the beginning of a conversation between her and her father about Lebanon. But that wasn't what happened. He simply sent her the recording and asked her to let him know if it didn't sound right. And that's how Dad's Poem (شعر أبي) came to be. This album, which includes Healing You, is Nicole's attempt to discover and reconnect with the ANA within herself. As for Healing You specifically, she described it in a Swedish interview as her love letter to Lebanon. I chose Healing You as my BJSC entry because it genuinely touched me so deeply the very first time I heard it. I honestly don't have the words to describe just how beautiful this song is to me. I probably won't be entering the same artists twice, so I'd really encourage you all to take some time to discover her album ANA and get to know the story behind it. It's genuinely fascinating on so many different levels, and I hope you'll find something special in it too.

I'm at a celebration for a newborn at the moment, but I think I'll be back in time for the start of the second semi-final listening, if it's happening today?

When can we expect semis?

I have no idea

If I remember correctly, I think Bror mentioned during one of the listening-throughs that there wouldn't be a Christmas Song Contest this year because there was no one to organise it. So I thought I'd ask if you'd be happy to let me organise it?

No, don't worry, I just thought I'd do it to support you. I'm not really into the competition seriously anyway, and I'd only be creating extra work for you now, so no xD Everything's fine.

I would introduce retirement after 250 editions! 😛

I wanted to send it last night, but I forgot. Never mind, I’m sorry.

I have a question regarding remixes: does the release date of the original song or the remix count or both

Just putting it on record that I was the first who send Ane Brun this year in some spinoff! 😛

My song has 158 views on and it's the most beautiful song I've heard this year.

I don't know off the top of my head which year each one is from, apart from the really popular ones.

I assume this opens today?

Congratulations Scaeroche!! I'm honestly shocked by this second place, even though I believed in my song myself and I think it deserves this second place! 🥲 I'll keep coming to the listeningtroughs. 😂