EMEL Shares 'Lose My Mind (Acid Arab Remix),' Details US Tour Dates

Tunisian/American, New York City-based artist, producer, and activist EMEL (Emel Mathlouthi) has shared a club-ready remix from Parisian duo Acid Arab for MRA standout track “Lose My Mind (Ft. Nayomi).” Using EMEL’s original bouncing Arabic reggaeton groove as a launching pad, Acid Arab adds a thumping four-on-the-floor beat with bursts of rave-forward mizmar, delivering an intoxicating blend of East meets West club music. 

In addition to the remix, EMEL has announced a new US tour beginning with a string of dates in February and ending with appearances at this year’s Treefort Music Fest and Big Ears Festival at the end of March. EMEL’s performances have been praised by outlets like The Guardian for her “Björk-like glamour” and bringing “one of the weekend’s most powerful moments,” at last year’s Womad festival, which is on full display in a new live video of her performing “Massive Will” at Le Centquatre in Paris. Tickets and more information for the upcoming dates are available here.

On MRA, meaning “woman” in Arabic, EMEL deconstructs to rebuild, boldly pressing forward her vision of a female-driven paradigm shift in a world in desperate need of one. That is why every single collaborator on MRA, from producers, featured artists, musicians, and beyond, is a woman — marginalized in recognition, but outsized in ability. With the help of artists such as Camélia Jordana, Nayomi, and Ami Yerewolo, the result is a multi-genre meld where African trap, batucada, hip hop, and drum n’ bass rub shoulders seamlessly with vibrant melodies and empowering lyrics sung in 5 different languages & 3 dialects. Standout tracks include the sweeping, mantra-like “Souty,” the anthemic-trap of “Nar,” and the industrial-gospel “Massive Will,” an aperitif of the revolution to come. EMEL seeks a world of resilience and unity on the powerful, salvific, and feminist MRA.
 
EMEL’s career is punctuated with eclectic collaborations with iconic artists like Alaïa and Jean-Paul Gaultier on her stage wardrobe and scoring work with Shirin Neshat, Robert Del Naja, and more recently on Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. In 2010, she was named the voice of the Arab Spring when her folk-hymnal “Kelmti Horra (My Word Is Free),” once banned, was resurrected as a protest anthem. She’d later perform the track at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and concert in Oslo. Two years later, amongst touring all over Europe and the US, EMEL furtively played an underground concert in volatile Baghdad, Iraq, and a highly illegal, all-women performance in Iran, as chronicled in the documentary No Land’s Song. And last summer, she performed for Palestinians — the subject of her track “Naci En Palestina (I Was Born in Palestine)”— in East Jerusalem and the West Bank facing backlash. 
 
“I don't create things to be consumed,” she says. “I hope it transcends time, transcends boundaries, transcends cultures. Music can change the world.”

EMEL Live Dates

Feb 16           Berkley, CA @ Freight & Salvage
Feb 18           Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s 
Feb 19           Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room 
March 18       New York, NY @ Pioneer Works
March 19       Philadelphia, PA @ World Cafe Live
March 20       Washington D.C. @ Union Stage
March 21       Cleveland, OH @ Cleveland Museum Of Art
March 27       Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest
March 29       Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival

Photo Credit: Amber Grey