july-2012

MUSIC
S
he’s a delicate bird of a girl with a big
voice and equally big, towering hair –
a wild ode to the power of Elnett that
Selah Sue explains is less a fashion statement
than a remnant of teenage insecurity. “I had a
terrible time as a teenager and I’ve been doing
weird things with my hair since I was 13. This
hairstyle actually came from the fact that I had
this really big complex and thought my head
was far too big for my hair! I still don’t feel like
I could style it normally – I’m so insecure if I
don’t pile it on.”
Her adolescent battle with depression
spawned more than a crazy barnet, inspiring
many of the ridiculously catchy ragga-reggaesoul
infused hits on her debut album Selah Sue
(2011), a double-platinum smash in Europe.
Over 250,000 copies were sold in France
alone, but the singer’s greatest point of pride is
the fact that the record proved a Number One
hit in both Wallonia and her native Flanders.
“That’s really cool, because there aren’t a lot
of artists who are popular on both sides of
Belgium,” she grins winningly. “When I go
home everybody’s like, ‘Oh we’re so proud of
you, our little Selah, you’re our little girl!’”
Yet this ‘little girl’, (born Sanne Putseys to a
“totally unmusical family” in the tiny village of
Leefdaal in Flemish Brabant) has her head
tightly screwed on under that untamed
beehive. As a 17-year-old studying psychology
at university by day and performing at small
clubs and posting demos on Myspace by night,
she shooed away the big record companies
courting her, saying she wasn’t ready. Now,
named as one of 2012’s Faces to Watch by
music bible Rolling Stone, the biggest Belgian
recording artist in over a decade is taking stock
and learning from her fellow divas to avoid
some of the pitfalls of fame.
She admits that the much-publicised vocal
struggles of fellow untrained singer, Adele,
spurred her to be more careful with her own.
“At one point I had a sore throat with a
lump on it, and it really wrecked my head as I
thought I was going to need surgery and then
what happened to amy
winehouse was just so
sad. it messed me up for
months, because it was
such a terrible waste
I would be disappointing a lot of people. The
thought was killing me so I quit everything –
drinking and smoking. And my voice can
handle it now”.
Compassion brims in her voice as she
speaks of the plight of another tiny girl with a
big voice, Amy Winehouse: “When you’re on
tour, there’s a lot of waiting around and there’s
drink and drugs available everywhere to kill the
boredom. And it’s really easy to get caught up
in a vicious cycle, and I imagine that you just
crack. What happened to Amy Winehouse was
just so sad. It messed me up for months as it
just seemed like such a terrible waste.”
However, the female star who exerted the
greatest influence on the 23-year-old’s musical
styling was US soulstress, Lauryn Hill – Selah’s
monicker being partly inspired by Selah, a song
that Hill wrote for her daughter (while Sue is a
tribute to the Belgian singer’s sister).
“I discovered Lauryn Hill’s Unplugged album
on MTV when I was 15 and learned guitar
chords thanks to that record. Lauryn Hill has it
all: she sings, raps, rhymes and carries her
melodies and lyrics.”
Selah recently found herself working with
the producer of The Fugees’ breakthrough
album, The Score, on one of the extra tracks
to be included with her debut album when it’s
34 july 2012
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