The excitement is palpable when we meet Ronisia this Wednesday afternoon, a few hours from his release party in a private studio in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. A crowd is busy preparing the place where the same evening the 22-year-old singer will lift the veil on her first album, which is officially released this Friday. A fun area dotted with fairground activities, punching-ball games or a cotton candy stand. On the mezzanine, in a small dressing room, Ronisia is discreet. “I don’t want to look down because it stresses me out,” she slips gently before our interview.
Despite his millions of views on YouTube, his first parts of renowned artists like Burna Boy or the giant screen that showed his face in Times Square last December, the R’n’B artist is very small, like intimidated by the dazzling success of her young career. Affable and modest, she still observes with astonishment her growing notoriety.
“I started to have visibility during confinement but I didn’t necessarily realize the impact I had had,” she explains. It was afterwards, on leaving, that people began to recognize me and ask me for photos. There was a sudden change but it was just fun. And the ascent is far from over for Ronisia.
“Music was an activity on the side, I did not see myself making it my job”
A few years ago, the young woman from Grigny, in Essonne, was far from suspecting the turn that her life would take. “Basically I sang with my girlfriends, in the bathroom, at home, for fun,” she says. Music for me was a side activity, I didn’t see myself making it my job. After studying in the medico-social sector and training as a specialist educator, she worked with young people with disabilities in a medico-educational institute in Evry. For fun, she sometimes sings on the small stage of an MJC in her city where she often meets with her friends. “It was my entourage, my relatives, my producer whom I knew from before, who encouraged me. They told me to try, I didn’t want too much because I thought that you had to be exposed, that you had no more private life…”
Despite the apprehension (“I was super stressed about going to the studio and seeing what it would turn out,” she says), Ronisia tries her luck. We are in 2019 and the young woman is just 19 years old. She reveals the titles paranoid and Sorry, but it’s Landing in 2020, which is his first major success. The song is covered on TikTok and the challenges of the social network, obtains a gold single certification and has accumulated more than 50 million views on YouTube to date. “When there was a craze around this piece, I said to myself that it was serious and that it could perhaps become my profession. Then there was the signature in record company and there I began to carry out , recalls it.
Stories of friendship and love
From then on, the successes follow one another, like pretty lady, his duet with Joe Dwèt Filé or even Like me with Tiakola, who appears on the album she unveils this Friday. There are also duets with the rapper Ninho or the singer Eva. A first opus that bears her first name and that the singer presents as “a business card”. “It’s a project that is supposed to define my universe and my musical style,” she explains. His style ? R’n’B music with multiple musical influences, which she draws as much from Afro-Carribean sounds as from the United States with artists like Rihanna, Beyoncé or Kehlani, with whom she dreams of doing a feat. We also find its Cape Verdean origins, especially in the very beautiful title Nha Terra which she sings in French and Portuguese Creole.
Throughout the songs, the theme of friendship, fundamental for Ronisia, is declined. “My girlfriends are people I grew up with, they’re borderline sisters,” she says. They participated in the whole development of my project from A to Z, they were a support. At times I was not necessarily very well but they were there, they remotivated me with words, gestures. “Very united, they even agreed to participate in small promotional videos entitled Ronisia and Friends, who have been unveiling for several weeks the first album of their friend and her universe. “It also allows the public to see who I hang out with, maybe they are interested in seeing how we are in everyday life. In general people like to know that they can get to know you a little bit more, ”says the singer.
Love also finds a beautiful place there, with pieces like Dark Where We get carried away. “It’s universal, it’s the theme that speaks to me the most and with which I feel the most comfortable. I’m not going to force myself to talk about politics, in any case I don’t feel comfortable talking about it in my songs yet, maybe in two years it will be the case, ”reflects the young woman. Regarding the feeling of love, she nevertheless remains modest and prefers not to answer when asked to what extent her songs are inspired by her personal life. “I prefer to leave people in doubt and guess when I’m talking about myself…”, she evades timidly.
“Music is no longer just an activity, it has become my profession”
Reserved, Ronisia is also a determined young woman. In Money, the first title of the album, the singer affirms her desire for independence and her ambitions. “Music is no longer just an activity, it has become my profession. Of course the money comes into play, to tell you that I don’t think about it, that would be wrong. But I notice that people can be afraid to talk about it, women in particular. In the music when they talk about money we see them as materialistic, whereas the boys talk about it all the time but we don’t blame them. I may not be expected on this but it’s me, it’s the truth and it’s sincere, ”she explains. Ronisia also dreams of having a career like that of Rihanna, whom she admires: “I would love to be a muse for a brand like her, or even create my own brand. What Rihanna represents in the world of music, business… Even politically I find that she is really committed. This is the very example of what I want to succeed in doing”.
Recently, the young singer was exposed in the middle of Times Square, where the Spotify platform projected her on the big screen as part of its Equal program which offers visibility to female artists. “I was very proud! And at the same time it’s a bit of pressure, I told myself that I was one of the few artists who could be displayed there, you have to be sure behind it. But it’s a crazy thing to highlight women in Times Square, I think it’s a good initiative, ”she rejoices, before continuing. “In many circles there are not enough women or they are not sufficiently recognized and put forward. Music is a predominantly male environment and I tell myself that if we manage to impose ourselves and export ourselves beyond France, it’s only positive. »
If Ronisia’s career seems well underway, some challenges await her. Learn to no longer take things to heart and be less sensitive to the gaze of others. She will also soon meet her audience during her first concerts. “I can’t wait but I’m stressed,” says the singer. I did opening acts but it’s not the same thing, I’m going to spend more than an hour with them, we’re going to sing together, we’re going to look at each other, talk to each other… There people come for you. »