The Power of Women in Music: Snoh Aalegra
By Antonella Badchkam
Snoh Aalegra ( real name Snoh Nowrozi ), was born in 1987 in the city of Uppsala in Sweden to Persian parents, this will greatly influence her personal and musical growth, merging the two very different cultures together, but which will help to forge Snoh’s individuality. Snoh Aalegra was only 6/7 years old when she started singing and writing songs by herself, in her bedroom in Uppsala, a Swedish town not far from Stockholm. So she begins to perform at school with her classmates and among relatives and family friends, even winning some talent shows in her city, with one of her first songs written by herself. At just 14, she signed her first contract with a music label, spending most of her free time in a recording studio.
Snoh spits out all the soul she has inside, with a voice full of emotions, light and sinuous as a feather, a mix between Amy Winehouse, Sade, and Erykah Badu, immersed in a vintage VSCO filter. Her passion for R&B and soul music is immediately evident, among her inspirations, there are classic artists such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Prince, Nina Simone, and Lauryn Hill. The Swedish artist began immediately recording soul and R&B material, including the two albums FEELS (2017) and Ugh, those Feels Again (2019). Snoh is a bit of a musical polyglot, riding R&B, soul, and rap indiscriminately.
Growing up between two cultures, the Iranian one, which is a warm and rich culture, where showing off is better and the love for beauty is felt very strongly, compared to the much simpler and much more minimalist Swedish one, Snoh acquires the flavor of both even if it will be more influenced by the Swedish one. But her true identity is found when, after living briefly in London for a few years, she finally moves to Los Angeles, where she can work with the best R&B and Soul producers and artists, which will help her express herself at her best. It will be here that she will meet Prince, who will become her mentor in the last three years of his life and this will also be able to forge further, a great musical influence in Snoh, but also many indissoluble memories working alongside this legend and also knowing a playful side of the artist, that few knew.
Snoh has always described her music as cinematic soul and in her debut album, FEELS, from 2017, she follows that project to the letter, with a cinematic element that deeply marks the difference between Aalegra from the rest of the other artists in her scene, describing her openly, as a creative R&B force.
FEELS is immediately deep and explicit, a record that requires several plays not because it is intoxicating, but because the luxurious production isolates you and manages to completely involve you in the world of Aalegra, deeply penetrating your soul.
In Sometimes the artist manages to convey the atmospheric tone and deep emotions right from the intro, with a superb collaboration from Logic. Between menacing horns, glittering keyboards, chilling strings, and funky scratches, Nothing Burns Like the Cold proves to be the album's most important track. In many ways, FEELS is an album where Snoh takes all the risks and decides if they're really worth it. FEELS becomes an intimate glimpse into Aalegra's battle over her vulnerability, which itself is a very vulnerable offering. In the beautiful, Fool For You, we find the most solitary moment of the album, in which all the heart of Snoh is at stake, without veils, to give us every unfiltered note, simply overflowing strongly from her soul.
Snoh releases her second album Ugh Those Feels Again, in 2019, written after being sentimentally back into the game, at the end of a long relationship that she described as depressing and stressful. Yet, she was still thrilled to throw herself back into the fray, despite the complications that can arise from new bonds. In this album, the artist's insightful and direct narrative is combined with fluid and light instrumentals, which create a sincere reflection on the anxiety surrounding ambiguous relationships and the fear of commitment. A clear example of this is I Want You Around, which describes the initial emotion of a new story, held back by the caution of wanting to live it in small steps.
“I don’t wanna kiss you, yet/I just wanna feel you.”
In the song, Situationship Snoh is undecided if to choose to live the relationship in full or in seeing each other casually, at only certain times. Although she admits she doesn't force things, her feelings are growing more and more and she doesn't know what to do. A difficult position to be in, where the artist captures the vulnerability that arises when we are accepting the more intricate feelings.
Find Someone Like You remembers with nostalgia, moments spent hand in hand with a lover, the violins accompany the song perfectly, with an angelic chorus at the end.
This album forged with an almost disarming delicacy shows us that even in the most desperate moments when it seems that everything is collapsing around us, love always opens a glimmer of hope. When it seems easier for us to escape from the most painful situations and emotions, Snoh urges us to stay and face them, demonstrating it with her courageous and boundless vocal lyrics.
In July 2020 Snoh releases her latest single Dying for your Love, Snoh's intricate lyrics capture her struggle between giving up on a past love or giving the feelings they once shared together another chance.
The most admirable thing about this artist is that she doesn't seek dominance on the charts. Her creative self-sufficiency and artistic integrity, instilled in her by her mentor Prince, meant she avoided big label money and commerciality at all costs.
Her production speaks for itself; authenticity is her business card. With a distinct indie sheen, Aalegra makes her way with her pure writing of her deepest feelings and self-cultivated autonomy, where a sense of permanence must come from within. The soul always knows how to speak and to sing the most hidden and precious feelings to us.
