Everyone who has ever had to revise knows it. The YouTube channel Lofi Girl and its 125 videos have nearly 1.8 billion views and almost 14 million subscribers. Thousands (43,000 this Tuesday) of people watch – or rather listen – live to “hip-hop” sounds on “chill”, “relaxed” beats, perfect for concentrating. The drawing to accompany these playlists represents a young girl studying, green sweatshirt and red collar, headphones on her head, scribbling pages. Her cat looks out the window and when the weather is nice, you can recognize the city of Lyon outside.
On the occasion of the release of his new video “Snowman”, which once again highlights the capital of Gaul, Michel from the Lofi Girl/Lofi Records team returned to 20 minutes on the history of the channel, its success and its close links with Lyon.
What are the origins of the Lofi Girl channel?
Originally, it was Dimitri, then a 20-year-old student, who launched his channel in 2015, which was then called “Chilled Cow”. It was convertible into cash two and a half years later. From the start, the objective was threefold: to promote a cool, pleasant, zen, creative musical movement that we liked but also to ensure that we quickly gained notoriety to promote talented artists who were not yet known and allow them to advance. with us. And above all, to give students, high school students, but also places of relaxation and work the opportunity to enhance their daily lives with companionable music without interruption, always with a beautiful associated animated visual.
What is the history of this animated visual and in particular, its link with Lyon?
There is a family attachment to the city of creator Dimitri. This is why we first thought of contacting a school of illustrators in Lyon that we commissioned for our image, with our recommendations. She thus selected one of their brilliant students Juan Pablo Machado to create the famous Lofi Girl.
Moreover, after careful consideration due to the fact that “Chilled Cow” was already well known, the channel took the name Lofi Girl on March 18, 2022, at the urging of our audience.
Three weeks ago, a new video on the channel once again highlighted Lyon. For what ?
Six years after our launch and with Christmas approaching, it seemed important to us to give a little nod to the sources, through this little “Snowman” clip that we produced in-house.
Are other similar projects planned in the future?
A new adventure was born six months ago with Lofi Boy and Synthwave [sur le même principe que Lofi Girl mais avec des styles musicaux différents]. We have created our own illustration and animation studio internally and have formed partnerships with actors seeking our know-how in both music and animation, Rocket League, Lego, Disney, Marvel… But Lofi Girl, the Lyonnaise also secretly dreams of the 2024 Olympic Games…