Singer and songwriter Lolo Zouaï grew up in San Francisco, and her emotional tracks draw inspiration from classic R&B and pop tunes to hyphy and the city’s hip-hop scene to create a musical world that combines the future with the past. She just finished her PLAYGIRL Tour for her new album in Europe, and is launching the North American tour in her hometown at Bimbo’s 365 Club on Tue/11.
Born to a French mother and an Algerian father who moved to SF when she was only three months old, the singer infuses French, Algerian, and Bay Area culture into her lyrics. Her 2019 EP Ocean Beach was a love letter to the city that watched her grow both as a person and as an artist; an ode to where the waves witnessed her write lyrics and ponder her life:
“We used to drive down the west side/ Honda 92, that’s my first ride/ walk into Sevan’s with no ID/ Barely 16, cop the 40.”
Locals may remember the Sevan Liquor and Deli, which was located at 1508 Taraval Street before being permanently closed. Local spots and memories like these present themselves as melodic treasures years later.
“I needed to remind myself that I used to be in my bedroom producing, wondering how I was gonna get my music out there,” Zouaï says in her music video’s caption. “In the music industry it’s easy to feel jaded and lose the passion that made you want to start in the first place.”
For Zouaï, music is a cathartic experience that has allowed her to create music she wants to dance and cry to. The year 2019 also saw the release of her debut album High Highs to Low Lows, a melancholic soundtrack about love, sensuality, homesickness and depression. It’s an introspect to some of the best times and some of the difficult times in the singer’s life.
Zouaï’s creates images of her hometown, offers seductive flair with the French track “Beaucoup” or incorporates Arabic vocabulary when discussing her strained relationship with her family in Algeria in the track “Desert Rose,” which has garnered millions of views on YouTube.
Her music has gained recognition in the last five years, rallying more than a million Spotify monthly listeners. Some of her tracks featured in TV series, such as “Chain” in an episode of Euphoria in 2019 and “Jade” in the soundtrack of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why in 2020.
Last year Zouaï sang the National Anthem at the Golden State Warrior’s playoffs and opened for pop singer Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia Tour. Her PLAYGIRL world is pixilated with her own take on retro pop culture, childhood and adolescence in SF, and the colorful and fun Y2K fashion.
The single “Pl4g1rl” is inspired by rapper Too $hort’s 2003 “Pimpandho.com” but Zouaï takes charge of the chat as the “Bitch from the Bay,” bringing her own catchy hyphy-pop beat into the conversation.
“To take that song from 2003, which I think is brilliant, and bring it into a more modern world and flip it, making it a little more female empowering versus sexist, was really fun,” Zouaï told 48 Hills. “It was something I’ve always wanted to do. I felt like picking a song that I personally love, and that wasn’t as big, was more exciting.”
If you’re curious about Too $hort being aware of her rendition of his song with elevated swagger, he totally knows and he’s a fan. Before the song was released, she requested approval from him and his team, which they granted, and he is credited in the track.
“I definitely want to send him a video of some of the tour when the song gets performed, but we’ll see,” she said.
Another one of her favorite local artists she grew up listening to was E-40. The rapper was featured in her R&B track “Chevy Impala,” a song so true to his style.
“For ‘Chevy Impala’ I thought, ‘he has to be on it, because he always talks about his cars,’” said Zouaï who mentioned she met the “Tell Me When To Go” rapper through her ex-boyfriend in high school.
“(E-40) knew me just as a person but not as an artist,” she remembered. “I sent E-40 the song by text and then he cut the vocals, and he texted me back.”
Zouaï was thankful for his contribution to the song and she texted him immediately with gratitude, to which he responded, “It’s all gravity,” a familiar chorus from his 2002 song of the same title.
Like many artists and people who go through new adventures, try new things and change their style, Zouaï’s music has gone through its own evolution. While High Highs to Low Lows dived into the R&B sound and melancholic tunes, PLAYGIRL offers flirty, whimsy, bold pop.
“I always feel like I’m going to be experimenting, and just because this is one album that doesn’t mean I’m not going want to be melancholy and make moody stuff again,” said Zouaï of her new sound. “Albums are just cycles—it’s like one year of your life and then it comes out and you’re already in a different phase of your life.”
When the PLAYGIRL album was being produced it was during the pandemic and she’s proud of herself because working on it allowed her to surpass her writer’s block.
“I feel limitless in what I can create,” she said. “I don’t feel like I have any type of box for creating music. I feel like I can just do whatever [I want].”
Acknowledging that artists can grow, experiment and be labeled in a specific genre is something she appreciates from her fans, whom she calls the Lo-riders.
“It’s really fun to go into those three different moods and bring some of my older music into the PLAYGIRL world,” said Zouaï. “Some of my fans have been trying to make lists of which songs they think fit each playgirl [persona on the album]—I think that’s really fun and cute.”
The show will be an electrifying experience to the digital era of 20 years ago. Those who grew up during the 2000s will remember how MP3 players, Hello Kitty, Tamagotchi, and the World Wide Web reigned over our childhoods. The PLAYGIRL album has three personalities to fit each mood—Playgirl, Dream Girl and Party Girl, all of which will be represented in her US tour.
“The show is [presented] as if you’re in a computer and it is really transportive and it’s supposed to be an hour and a half about forgetting everything and just emerging yourself into my brain,” said Zouaï.
The artist worked on the visuals and lighting for the show, the Playgirl neon boxes featured, and the outfit changes to create an epic concert. Zouaï’s last formal SF show was during her 2019 tour for her debut album High Highs to Low Lows and she is looking forward to kicking off the US leg of the PLAYGIRL tour in the Bay.
“It’s really next level and I’m really proud of it,” said Zouaï. “It already went so well in Europe and we’re bringing it to the States, and I can’t wait to play SF, and Urban Plaza in New York, and the El Rey in LA. It’s going to be amazing.”
These three major US cities are locations where she has lived while working on music—each has an influence on her lyrics, but her hometown keeps coming to the top.
“San Francisco is more ingrained in me. It’s just who I am. There’s just pride [in] being from the city and I wanted to bring that to my music,” said Zaouï.
The SF culture is what she knows, what she grew up with, and what she misses when she’s not in town.
“There are so many incredible artists from the Bay that I love like Thuy, Larry June and Rex Life Raj, of course Kehlani, the queen of the Bay,” said Zaouï. “It’s so cool to be friends with all of them, and I feel very welcomed by my peers in the Bay, so that’s always amazing.”
She didn’t always have connections in the music industry nor was she born a nepo baby (child of celebrities), so she had to work hard to cultivate a career.
“I come from parents who are immigrants and have nothing that have to do with the music industry, and I think that I’m very proud of myself for where I am,” Zaouï added. “Obviously as a driven person I always want to keep getting better and keep reaching for more, but at the same time I’m trying to be really grateful for what I have, and it’s been fun. This is supposed to be a fun career, so I’ve been enjoying it.”
Lolo Zaouï starts her 20-date U.S. tour on Tuesday at Bimbo’s 365. More info here.
