After gaining recognition on the national music scene with the acclaimed album “Ecdise,” which made the prestigious APCA (Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte) list, singer-songwriter Liège is back with the new single “D.Q.U.” This release marks the beginning of a new creative phase for the artist, which will culminate in a forthcoming EP, scheduled for release soon.
The title of the song, “D.Q.U,” is an abbreviation of “Doce, Quente e Úmida,” indicating the sensuality inherent in Liège’s musicality. This track also reaffirms her position as a musical powerhouse straight from the north of Brazil.
Produced by Dominique Vieira, “D.Q.U” offers a glimpse of what we can expect from Liège’s next musical era. The singer revealed that the main element in her next album will be water, incorporating poetry linked to the rivers of the Amazon, which flow throughout Brazil, impacting not only the environment, but also the climate.
“D.Q.U” celebrates the fluidity of life, personified by water, and its ability to adapt to different scenarios and locations. The lyrics evoke images of water flowing, flooding streets, nourishing the earth and bringing life, even in the midst of drought.
This launch marks the beginning of the creative process for Liège’s new album, which will feature the collaboration of artists from different regions of Brazil and the world, all gathered in São Paulo.
Liège is a versatile artist who composes, sings and acts as a cultural influence on the Brazilian art scene. Her music incorporates elements of MPB, pop, R&B and world music, reflecting her rich Afro and indigenous heritage.
With “D.Q.U,” Liège invites audiences to immerse themselves in her unique and engaging vision of Brazilian music, connecting its roots to contemporary times and revealing the Amazon as an influential force on the musical and cultural scene in Brazil and around the world. This is just the beginning of a journey that Liège is about to embark on with “D.Q.U”. The single is already available on all the main music platforms.
“D.Q.U” represents a new creative phase for you. Can you share more about the inspirations and themes that are shaping this next era of music?
In my first album, ECDISE (2021), I talked about changing my skin to grow up, leaving my region and trying to expand my career in São Paulo. The next album deals with this moment as a resident of São Paulo and all the crossings that this has brought me and brings me, the people from the most diverse places in Brazil and the world, the sounds, the impact of the chaotic city and at the same time the warmth that its overflowing art brings and the main thing: how I see myself in the face of it all. I see myself as a “flying river of the Amazon”, falling as rain on this concrete and flowing over the buried rivers here, connecting with them and forming new currents and paths. What fascinates me most about this process is composing collectively with these rivers, which are the different people I meet in São Paulo. The whole album will be collaborative in all its phases.
Water plays a significant role in your upcoming work. How does this element fit into the narrative and sound of the new EP?
I am water. The single DQU describes exactly that and introduces the concept that I’ll be working on throughout the album’s compositions. The power to adapt to the most diverse spaces, the resistance to breaking down barriers and breaking new ground, and more, it’s about the unstoppable force of water when it joins other rivers and together they flow into multiple places. The sound will also be built on the plurality brought by the people invited to compose the album, but the focus is on exalting my ancestral, percussive, Afro-indigenous sound with elements brought in electronically, African references and from other regions of Brazil and the world, which will draw the place that I believe best presents me within the music that is contemporary Brazilian music made in the north. It’s pop, it’s universal and it’s also experimental and free.
Moving from one place to another, like from Belém to São Paulo, can be a transformative experience. How has this change influenced your music and creative outlook?
It influenced me 100 per cent. I’ve really grown and honed my survival instinct. SP itself encourages us to relearn how to live every day. Many political issues cut across the north, the Amazon and the southeast. This is very complex and I see that resisting here is marking my presence and contributing to the movement of my place, my ethnicity and my people that we exist and are far beyond the image and folklorised concepts they have about us, our music, arts and experiences. Each composition on the new album portrays this in some way, even those that speak of love, desire, are stitched together with the perspective of an Afro-Indigenous woman, mother, pwd and artist from the north of Brazil, existing in the south-east of the country.
How would you describe the connection between your Afro and indigenous heritage and the music you create? How does this manifest itself in your compositions?
This connection is ancestral, it is spiritual and today more than ever it is my main objective of study. When I realised where I came from, who I was and how important this would be for my art and for this art to effectively have a positive impact on the world, I immersed myself, used and use all the access I have to explore and know how to say for myself in a clear and objective way the importance of traditional peoples, how much the return to a path of no return and how aware we are of what is ours and the spaces we want and must occupy. So, whether it’s in the rhythmic cells of the songs and the instruments chosen, in the poetics, in the guests and/or in the artistic conception of the album, this connection will be evident.
“D.Q.U” evokes images of water flowing and flooding places. Can you tell us more about the meaning behind this metaphor in the song?
We Amazonians are rivers. In the face of the focus on our land and all the climate catastrophes caused by its misuse, we artists are essential in the politics of making everyone understand that the Amazon has people, that it has art and that we know everything that everyone else knows and, what’s more, that we are valuable to the entire socio-political and economic dynamics of the world. Flooding the streets of São Paulo with our presence and other regions that centralise artistic visibility, income distribution and the most diverse access is writing the part of history dreamt up by those of us who also own this land and are increasingly instrumentalised in fighting for our rights. Art is a tool in this revolution and water carries this message on this new disc.
Collaborating with artists from different regions and cultures is an exciting aspect of your new album. What are the challenges and rewards of working with such creative diversity?
The challenges include aligning agendas and expectations about how these relationships will develop. Each person is a universe and this is as beautiful as it is complex. So communication is the star of this whole process, making the narratives, perspectives and needs of those involved evident. The rewards are rich, exciting compositions and it’s like having a child, you know? We bring our worlds together and give birth to something genuinely new, with our DNAs so different that in the beauty of art they meet and flourish. That’s priceless.
Your music incorporates a variety of genres, from MPB to R&B and world music. How would you describe your journey to create this unique musical fusion?
I make music first and foremost out of love and faith in the power it has to communicate and touch people from the most diverse backgrounds, beliefs and stereotypes. So I drink without prejudice from the most diverse sources and pick up the parts that make sense for the narrative I want to tell. I have my preferences, of course, but I refuse to box myself into a single style and have a discourse that goes against my essence of belittling the diversity of musical styles. My biggest challenge is to merge styles without ever losing my essence and my ancestral connection. Not forgetting the sound I grew up listening to, my accent, expressions, the way I speak and sing, and exalting what is so unique within styles that are popularised and reach a mass population. At the end of the day, the aim is to take the message to as many places as possible.
How do you see the role of music in expressing cultural identity and raising awareness of important issues, such as the preservation of the Amazon?
As I’ve said before, music is a powerful agent of revolution, it accesses places that seem inaccessible to us, it touches wounds and awakens thoughts. Music is far from being mere entertainment. There’s music in everything and it moves a lot of money in the system we’re in. As an artist from a totally marginalised, invisibilised and peripheral region within the geopolitical context of Brazil, I need to be responsible in my creations and I see my permanence outside my place of origin in order to get the message across and change directions as a necessity so that one day this will no longer be necessary. Maybe I’ll die and I won’t see it happen, but as long as I exist, I won’t allow my own story to be told for me. The song from the 1970s that says Brazil doesn’t know Brazil is still relevant today and that’s not acceptable. Every Uber I take in 2023, I’m identified as a Carioca by my accent and this is one of the confirmations of what I’ve defended here. The references of the north and the Amazon to the rest of Brazil are limited to Carimbó and only 3 or 4 artists who have really stood out in the mainstream. How can a region that is absurdly large in population, with a rich and diverse culture, only be represented for so long by the same manifestations and people? Has nothing different and interesting ever been produced in the Amazon region that deserves this kind of space? Not to mention the racial and ethnic divides, right? As an Afro-Indigenous person, I’m always with my peers in places with less visibility and quotas. Without the power to express our working conditions, fees and other needs because the industry always seems to be doing us a big favour. When in fact we know that we are the ones who know best about preservation, context and experience, and that everything could be more effective if we were listened to and respected as we deserve.
As well as music, you also act as an agent of cultural transformation. Can you share more about how you see your contribution to the Brazilian art scene?
I’m slowly making my way as a cultural agent outside of my region, but 20 years ago, when I decided to make music and be an artist, I always knew that I would have a responsibility towards what many people call a “gift” and I call work. So I never set out to be just the artist who gets up on stage and sings. I’ve always studied the entire production chain to understand how to break through the bubbles and really exist within the music scene. Of course, in this process I was also maturing as a person. I started when I was 16 and many dreams have been shattered since then. It was and still is very hard to get sick from working with art in Brazil. But I remain steadfast in my goal of passing on knowledge first and foremost to the people of my region and empowering them beyond, be it with my individual work in music or by carrying out collaborative audio visual, social and educational projects, as I always do.
The single “D.Q.U” is the starting point for this new journey. What do you hope listeners will experience and absorb from listening to this song?
I hope that this song brings a sense of belonging to my fellow countrymen who are outside our region, that it brings meaning and strength so that we can resist away from home. Being away from home is a very expensive and painful choice for each of us and our strong connection to the waters, to nature and to our people. DQU is about showing a path so that this search for our goals is seen as possible and continues to resist as bravely as water, showing its strength and power to occupy the most diverse places.
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