Luiza

Luiza has often found words inadequate for expressing the intensity of her feelings. They are too stiff and confining, so she sought another path. She let her voice lead her on her musical journey. She uses it like an instrument and has surrounded herself with the languages and landscapes she grew up with. Now Luiza invites us to discover her debut album “Luiza”. Thirty years ago, Luiza first came to the world in Rennes, France, and grew up in surroundings where art was ever-present. Her French father is a jazz bassist guided by interest, curiosity and respect for the music. Her mother is a free, daring dancer from Brazil. And the rest of the family included numerous other artists who have left their mark on Luiza’s artistic sensibilities. As a child, she was a member of the renowned Maîtrise de Bretagne children’s choir in Rennes, where she refined her vocal technique for eight years. At the conservatory, she concentrated on piano, guitar, harp and dance. Until she was a teenager, her life was marked by rehearsals and concerts of sacred music — the environment was sometimes too strict for a young girl, and she began to dream of something else. She sought new ideas and inspirations and travelled to the Amazon region. Luiza was already familiar with this area, because as a child she often spent vacations in the Yanomami indigenous communities. At 18, she returned there and discovered the power of the forest — sometimes still, sometimes chattery. At concerts and festivals in Brazilian cities, she learned that one should sing from the depths of one’s soul. A year later, Luiza was accepted to the art college at Réunion. On that island in the Indian ocean, she studied painting, documentary film-making and photography for five years. Here she wandered among the mountain peaks and revelled to the pulsing bass of reggae and dub music. This brought her musical and artistic spontaneity back, and she started singing again. She sings at dub parties and jam sessions in various languages, including a language she’s made up herself. Her gut feeling told her that she should no longer suppress her voice. Even at big stars’ concerts, she feels the drive to sing too, gets right up on stage and snatches the microphone from Richard Bona, Emir Kusturica, La Caravane Passe or Soviet Suprem, and surprises artists and audiences alike with her courage and talent. Luiza no longer had a choice: She had to make music her profession. In 2019, she returned to France to dive into a new artistic life. The singer for whom spontaneity is so central had to learn to rein herself in and develop according to new rules — both in the studio and on stage. Moreover, she had to start writing lyrics in French, a language that still intimidates her. She puts forth a lot of effort, but never loses sight of her authenticity. The years after that were marked by inspiring experiences and collaborations that moved her to release her first solo EP under her own name. In 2025, “Fantastik” appeared, a multi-language, multi-faceted work with a band led by Louis Thomas from the Armenian-French band Ladaniva. The EP is bewitching and colourful. Luiza experiments with Cumbia, dance hall, neo-soul and Brazilian styles, along with dreamy ballads. “Fantastik” roused the interest of electro producers Bleu Soleil, who were sure they could work miracles with their melodies and Luiza’s imagination. In a small room, with a cheap mic, they improvised a song with the simple title “Soleil Bleu”. A stroke of luck that immediately enchants. This ode to an independent life appealed to just about everybody, and it went viral in social media, which Luiza herself barely used. All the major radio broadcasters agreed on the track, regardless of their musical format: from Radio Nova’s alternative program to RTL and NRJ all the way to the hip-hop station Skyrock. In 2025, “Soleil Bleu” spent weeks at the top of the charts, became the third most frequently played French title, and streamed more than 170 million times. Even in German radio it was the most successful French song of the year, played by stations as diverse as SWR3, BigFM and WDR Cosmo. For Luiza, things are really cutting loose. For weeks on end she’s been invited everywhere to sing and give interviews. At the same time, the young artist is gushing with new ideas and aspirations, dreaming of the future and her first album. The album “Luiza” was created in one summer between Paris and the Italian port of Salerno, together with producer Victor Vagh, known for his work with Brazilian artist Flavia Coelho. It is a kaleidoscope in which nature plays a central role. That’s no surprise with an artist who has a mystical relationship to all of life, and who has learnt to contemplate both the veins of a leaf and the distant horizon. She travels with us from heaven to earth, from summer to winter, from day to night, and at the beginning and end gives a view of the sea. Every song in the album echos her many journeys. She covers the Brazilian classic “Manhã de Carnaval”, and “Étincelle” with Carbonne describes the fire that won’t wait. “Nuages”, with Ladaniva, embodies the power of friendship and connection, while “Western Chinois” gives wings to the imagination. Sometimes she even sings in her invented language, in which the sound alone can create meaning. Every song is thrilling, and it’s easy to feel how much Luiza already loved jazz, world and electronic sounds before she started making music herself. The album’s title, “Luiza”, fits perfectly, because it reflects the artist’s entire life. It is a sunny album, powerful yet gentle, that shows how sincere music can fill the heart.