Zeinab - Stories - Singles -
Zeinab - Stories - Singles -
SWIM GOOD
Reflecting on the release of ‘Swim Good’, Zeinab said:
When I sing this it feels like an outer body experience. I’m taken away to a deep and buried place that’s just me, my thoughts and my heavy emotion. Feelings of not being enough, guilt for my sadness, trying to escape my anxiety (“Imma try to swim from somethin' bigger than me”), and how nobody can pull me out of this pit of turmoil.
The song explores the topic of romantic baggage, guilt and suicide. Lyrically, the song expresses a narrative about a person who, burdened with many failed relationships, ends their life by driving into the ocean. The track explores tropes of the tragic love story and suicide.
Originally by Frank Ocean, Zeinab fell in love with his music after the album ‘Channel Orange’:
It was after this that I found Swim Good. It instantly struck a chord with me. This song spoke to me as at the time when I was struggling with my mental health. The song surrenders to sadness and pain, and singing it live has always had a therapeutic quality for me.
My reason for stripping the song back is to let the lyrics speak for themselves. It’s an exposing vulnerable song and so I wanted my vocals to ring out in the hope that other listeners will relate and connect to it.
Musically, 2023 is going to be a big year for me, and therefore it felt fitting that it would be my first single of the year.
Hawk Jupiter collaborated with Zeinab as the producer on this track having previously collaborated on 2021’s track “Oasis’. Hawk Jupiter and Zeinab have been collaborating for a year, and have scheduled to release a number of further tracks in 2023.
Italian artist Massimo Simigliano’s created the single’s soul-searching artwork, with the vast ocean and the big orange moon, a nod to her favourite album Frank Ocean’s ‘Channel Orange’.
A chilled vibey bop
'Summertime' is a chilled, vibey bop about summer love and our willingness to succumb to it.
Zeinab’s soulful, velvet voice with hypnotic repetitive lyrics, partnered with George Mandizha’s production, lulls listeners into a sense of accepting warmth and calm. The kind of sensation one experiences when lost in carefree summer love.
This is Zeinab’s first time working with London-based producer George Mandizha. She also collaborated with US-based illustrator Jamie Tam to produce the single’s fun bright artwork.
Zeinab’s single “Crying” is a pain filled soaring ballad, juxtaposed with a determined anguished hope.
Written in a very vulnerable and raw headspace, “Crying” was first drafted following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent Black Lives Matter movement, to help Zeinab understand what she was feeling, and how she could move forward and potentially help others understand and move forward too:
I wanted the song to be about the message. There’s so much hate in this world towards people just by the colour of our skin. A noise that pollutes this world we live in. All races should be celebrated. The colour of our skin should be celebrated for its beauty. We’ve lost too many people and continue to lose people because of the hate towards these differences and I felt the need to sing / cry out about ending this disease called racism. I’m not one to preach about different ideals but there’s too much at stake not to speak out about it. My emotions pushed me to a place that required me to create this song not just as a therapy for myself but hopefully for others.
For the track’s composition and visual artwork, Zeinab wanted to convey the clarity, rawness and innocent naivety of the message and what it meant to her. It’s a glimpse of how deep the feeling sat with her and for others to be able to hear and see that too, and where she felt that it would affect people most:
I didn’t want much backing vocals or other instruments in the song to distract or take away from the words. I want them to be heard and understood by all that listen. As well as that I wanted the artwork to speak on its own too. I wanted it to be as natural and fully myself as possible. No make up, natural lighting. My skin colour, curly hair should be celebrated in its natural state. I wanted to be seen as a natural black woman being comfortable with being vulnerable about something major that matters. The lyrics might make people uncomfortable, the artwork might make people uncomfortable but it's in that space where change is made.
Although the core of the BLM movement is based in the USA, its effects were and are felt in Ireland. With racism a great blight in Zeinab’s home in Ireland, she was asked to contribute to the Hotpress article: 100 Voices #AllAgainstRacism. As part of her article Zeinab wrote:
During the height of the Black Lives Matter movement and the murder of George Floyd I was in pain and overwhelmingly anxious with everything that was going on. I started reading and taking as much in as I could and I started to feel weak, powerless and helpless …. I didn't feel equal as a black person in this world. I was extremely upset and was breaking down. I was in a whirlwind of sadness.
I wrote a new song as a release, to try and help myself understand what I was feeling, and try and figure out how I was going to move forward. To put it on paper and sing it aloud, felt so cathartic. I hope that when other people feel the same way about this song, that it can also help them. (Hotpress)
Zeinab not only felt a responsibility to herself to write and release this song, but as a beacon for other kids who might feel that same, who felt different or felt as if they didn’t belong. Zeinab felt that it’s important for people to see people who look like them:
As a black kid I didn't fit in. I was the only one like me in primary and secondary school… I straightened my hair constantly and felt like that made me fit in. I did experience racism when I was young but I luckily didn't really understand that it was racist until I was much older. I struggled with my identity, even in recent years I didn't feel like I was black enough or white enough. But from working on it I've since become stronger in my skin and my identity as a black woman.
Growing up as a black kid in Dublin, even later as an adolescent and young adult, there were a very limited number of Black Irish inspirations. Hence my aspirational musical influences came from mostly black American artists. Specifically for my genre of RnB, it reflects me, it's an emotional, soulful and black genre, but I didn't feel like there was anyone in Ireland that resonated with me. Growing up Destiny's Child and more so Beyoncé, she was a huge role model and inspiration for me.
I feel like I have a possible role and responsibility to not only put my songs out there for a wider audience to hope that it resonates with them, but also to be a voice for black and black Irish communities.
Through her art, Zeinab has a medium and process to be able to understand and express herself. By being able to explore her vulnerability with confidence, and the process of writing, recording and releasing her music, Zeinab builds a greater understanding of self. Zeinab notes that “Crying” is part of that process and a building block on her previous single “Forever”:
When I released my last single Forever, developing and sharing the artwork was a huge moment in understanding my identity. It was a major moment for me in acknowledging who I was and what I wanted everyone else to see me as. It represents the black, strong, positive woman that I am.
For this solo project, Zeinab once again teamed up with Berlin based producer Magro to complete the track, and follows the soulful RnB direction of her previous release “Forever”, and is another step in the road for subsequent solo and collaborative releases pencilled for release later this year.
Singer songwriter: Zeinab
Producer: Magro
Mix & Mastering: Jarred Hearman
Photography: Stephen Kiernan
About Zeinab
Zeinab is a Dublin born, Soul/RnB singer-songwriter of part Sudanese heritage inspired by the powerful, soulful tones of Ella Fitzgerald & Billie Holiday, with contemporary influences Frank Ocean, Beyoncé & Adele’s conversational lyricism. Zeinab’s performances are captivating & charismatic, while off stage is a charming, friendly and bubbly character and presenter, exemplified by her music segment on Virgin Media 1’s, 6 O’Clock Show, and years as presenter on the charity radio station Christmas FM.
Zeinab has, and continues to work with artists and producers in Dublin (& Carlow), London, Berlin and Philadelphia.
She is currently representing herself.
Career to date
In 2014, shortly after dropping out of studying musical theatre in London to pursue her passion as a singer-songwriter, Zeinab won the Glen Hansard Bursary for her song ‘Dream Come True’, supported Paul Brady, short-listed on John Murray’s Sat Night Show RTE song contest, and performed on FM104’s open mic & many Irish & UK venues. Zeinab also collaborated with many artists on the Dublin Hip-Hop scene including 5th Element, poet & MC Mic P, DoubleScreen & others.
Zeinab last solo single “Forever” got national radio play on multiple stations, added to multiple Spotify playlists including; and UK RnB
Most recently Zeinab joined forces with Irish producer Hawk Jupiter on her collaborative single ‘Oasis’. It received radio support from local radio as well as national radio station Today FM. The single release is also supported by a music video which is available on YouTube.
Zeinab released ‘Love Me Too’ in Dec 2018 with House DJ & Producer Sharpson, which followed a June 2017 release; ‘Nothing To Say’. Both songs received Irish radio play as well as being performed live on RTE Pulse & FM104.
Her single ‘you don't know’ was a collaboration with Joe Cleere and released in March 2020. ‘you don’t know’ got its first radio play on Q102 following an interview with Nicola Bardon. Her single was also playlisted on Spotify. Received a feature in Lovin’ Dublin for her socially distant performance for neighbours during lockdown, and further attention for a follow up performance with a local D8 restaurant. Zeinab performed ‘you don’t know’ on international showcase platform Made Of Music.
At present, Zeinab is working on projects with Ballymun based rapers Linco & Ger Kellet, London based producer George Mandizha, and London based Singer-Songwriter Anthony Hughes.