Lolahol – Lourdes Ciccone, Lola Leon, “Little Star,” a girl of many names – is embracing her mom’s legacy.
For years, the 26-year-old dancer, choreographer, mannequin and actress claimed she had little interest in dabbling in the identical business because the Queen of Pop. As not too long ago as 2021, she advised Debi Mazar in Interview that “I simply don’t care about it.”
Might you blame her for being hesitant to step into the musical enviornment? Let’s face it: she’s battling inconceivable expectations. The Queen of Pop’s daughter releasing a debut single? That’s an excessive amount of stress for anybody.
Till now. To cite her mom: “And now I discover, I’ve modified my thoughts…”
Lola’s since taken the plunge. And intriguingly, and maybe admirably, she’s gone about it in a really completely different approach than one may anticipate.
Over the previous 12 months and a half or so, Lourdes has been slowly, certainly been poking her approach across the music world, befriending cool, simply under-the-radar acts like Shygirl and Eartheater, showing of their music movies and, ultimately, releasing a handful of tracks beneath the identify Lolahol, together with final 12 months’s Go EP, launched beneath Eartheater’s label, Chemical X.
With the world’s most sought-after producers undoubtedly at her disposal, on condition that she’s one in every of music’s largest nepo infants, she’s opted to not telephone in a favor to a hit-maker, going experimental as an alternative. Her music is moody and meandering; hypnotic, trippy and nebulous. It appears like somebody nonetheless exploring their musical tastes, and nonetheless discovering their footing and musical id…maybe a bit like her mom’s personal early work with bands like Breakfast Membership and Emmy & The Emmys.
And now, she’s taking it one step additional with a direct homage to the Queen.
After a gasp-worthy cameo through the Madame X Tour, going full interpretive dance Samara/Sadako within the backdrop of “Frozen,” Lourdes is now totally paying tribute to the Ray of Mild traditional with a track of her personal, known as “Spelling.”
“This piece may be very particular. It’s an homage to my mom’s timeless piece of artwork ‘Frozen,” she wrote on her Instagram.
“That piece has come up numerous occasions in my life, connecting the 2 of us. I’d be nothing with out the girl who introduced me into the world. I revere her, and hope that this interprets.”
The track was co-written with Knox Fortune, Samuel Burgess and Kiri Stenby, and the icy, downtempo trip-hop/electronica vibe of her mother’s iconic, William Orbit and Patrick Leonard co-crafted 1998 single is instantly clear on the chilly tune.
That affect is much more immediately recognizable is the accompanying music video, which “sees her bear a metamorphosis from specter to hellhound,” by way of a launch, choreographed by Lola herself and directed by Precise Objects, the collective who’ve labored with Shygirl and Caroline Polachek. There are quite a few references to Madonna’s iconic visible: the sweeping panorama photographs, the Queen-of-Pop as floating specter in darkish flowy garb, the transformation right into a flock of birds, the black doberman…it’s not a shot-by-shot copy, however it’s undeniably closely impressed.
The track itself isn’t simply Ray of Mild-esque, both. Because the BPM notches up for the track’s outro, she conjures a contact of American Life Madonna: “Am I livin’ a silly dream? / All people’s lookin’ for one thing,” she proclaims, sounding virtually precisely like her mom.
Forming her personal id – not simply being referred to as Lourdes, Daughter of Madonna – is a frightening activity.
“I wish to really feel like I deserve issues and never identical to I’ve been given issues. And, sure, there’s simple privilege that I’d be silly to not notice. Nepotism infants are fairly terrible often, and my mother and my father raised me to be a lot smarter than that,” she advised The Minimize.”
With “Spelling,” Lourdes is leaning in: she isn’t shying away from the affiliation. In reality, she’s proudly recognizing her mom’s profession.
Twenty-five years after Madonna crooned “Little Star,” a tribute to her new child child, her child is now singing one proper again. It’s arduous to not really feel a little bit emotional watching all of it come full circle. “The whole lot I offer you / All comes again to me…”
“Spelling” was launched on October 11.
Take a look at the MuuTunes Spotify playlist. You can even subscribe on Apple Music.
Picture Credit score: Samuel Ibram
