FEATURE:
Spotlight
Gracie Convert
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THIS is a D.J. and artist…
who I am a big admirer of. Gracie Convert has a terrific show on Soho Radio and I have also featured (several times) her radio mate, Iraina Mancini, who also has her own excellent show. It is station that encourages musical exploration and going beyond the mainstream. On her Soho Radio show page, her show is described as “an ethereal blend of soulful sounds from around the globe, with genres ranging from R&B and Hip-Hop to Afrobeats, Amapiano, Reggaeton, Salsa, Bachata, Baile Funk and more”. I have held off on spotlighting Convert until now as a lot of the interviews were older. I shall lead with an older one, as it is good to go back and see what she was saying earlier in her career. However, last year was one where the French-born artist and D.J. released some terrific singles. Included is one of my favourite of the year in the form of Ma. I adore the composition and Gracie Convert’s vocals on it. So hypnotic and breathy, it is this enticing, seductive and colourful track that brings in some of the styles and genres from her radio show, yet this is a distinct and patented blend. I think I first discovered Convert’s music in 2021 when she put out In my way. I can only imagine how off it was releasing music in a year when the pandemic was sweeping the globe. I love Convert’s passion for music. You can hear it on her radio show. That translates into her own music. I wonder if she has plans for gigs, an E.P. or album this year. I would love to see her perform and I also know there are fans out there who would welcome a 2026 E.P. Her songs from last year were incredible, so anyone who has not connected with Gracie Convert yet needs to.
Before coming to some more recent interviews, I want to go back to 2021. Gracie Convert might not want me to call her an ‘emerging’ or ‘rising’ talent, as she has been releasing music for a long time now. However, she is someone not known to everyone, so it is vital that as many people as possible check her out. In 2021, LOCK spoke with an incredible artist releasing music in a year that was perhaps not ideal. In terms of touring and connecting with fans. I am really excited to hear what comes next. Convert’s music is so diverse but always stunning:
“Good morning/good afternoon, when did you first get into music?
Hiii! Aha this is going to sound cringy I’m really sorry, but I did unfortunately sing before I could speak (show out to Disney for their sing along tapes lol) under the sea and colours of the wind were my faves! I guess it was always something that appealed, I always wanted to sing and dance around, it would’ve been difficult for me to not get into it I think.
You’re French and British, do you think your French heritage affects your songwriting in any way when it comes to experiencing different cultures?
No doubt about it!! I love french R&B and Hip-Hop, I still bang out songs I used to listen to when I was 12 years old. I really looked up to artists such as Zaho and Amel Bent, they’re really sick. My Mum and I never stayed put for very long so I grew up darting around between France, England and South Africa, I’d say it was in Cape Town I really got into R&B for the first time, everything followed from there really. God knows how many hours I spent dancing to MTV Bass and VH1 in front of the telly lol.
Your latest track ‘Something Special’ is all about someone sucking the life out of you – do you have any advice for anyone going through the same thing?
Bad energy, stay far away!! If it’s affecting your mental health, leave yes, it’s always easier said than done, but if you feel like you’re losing your identity get the hell out of that relationship, be it romantic or not. Remember what you wanted before you met that person, the things that made you happy, remember your childhood goals, don’t let anyone deter you from whatever was important to you before you got sucked in by someone who is destructive to your being.
Many publications such as Notion and Guap are calling you an emerging talent, is there any pressure when being called that?
On most days, those are the words that encourage me to keep putting the work in.
Sometimes when I read these things I feel like people just write them because they feel they have to or feel sorry for me lol, which doesn’t really make sense given I’m an independent artist with no money behind me. Isn’t it called Imposter syndrome? I’m an unknown artist just starting out, so when publications like Guap (I’ve loved them literally since they started), Notion and Colors (sorry had to mention this one because it was a big one for me!!) recognise my music, I’m like, surely not lol.
Other times, I low key feel like I’ve put so many hours in. I deserve it. It’s always changing, my mood’s all over the place anyway, but to be honest I think most creatives go through the same thing.
You show your love of R&B, Hip Hop and Rap when presenting your radio show on Soho Radio – which I love. What’s one artist in those three genres that everyone should be listening to?
Oh thanks!! It’s so fun to be a part of and it. I’m going to go with Deante Hitchcock, this rapper who is signed to J Cole’s label. I’m a big fan of J cole’s lyricism and Deante’s give me a similar feeling when I listen to him. Nayara Iz, I think she’s one of the most exciting artists to come out the UK right now, obsessed with Damso too, he’s a french artists and his songs bang, would recommend listening to the songs ‘Macarena’ and ‘Godbless’”.
Before getting to an interview from last year, there is an article I want to drop in. Where the Music Meets highlighted Gracie Convert’s new single, In my way, in June. Someone who can go between style and genres but always has this distinct and original core, I do love how there were articles around this single and others from last year. A phenomenal artist getting some much-deserved kudos and praise. I feel like Convert should be played more on big national radio stations, as she has this amazing talent the world needs to hear:
“There’s something about a voice that sounds like it’s telling you a secret—that leans in rather than belts out. Gracie Convert does exactly that in “In My Way“, the kind of track you play on a night bus while staring at lights and pretending everything’s fine.
Soft chords, barely-there drums, and those sigh-like vocals—”In My Way” channels early 2000s R&B in the best way. Think Amerie meets early Aaliyah with a French-English twist that makes it unmistakably Gracie. There’s a tenderness here that doesn’t beg for attention; it just sits with you, quiet and necessary. It feels like overhearing a voice note you were never supposed to catch—equal parts beautiful and a little too close for comfort.
The production is warm and minimal, thanks to Jack Seagal, with Gracie adding her own fingerprints throughout. That bilingual storytelling she’s become known for is alive and well, giving us both the softness of French vulnerability and the direct hit of English introspection. She sings about that kind of love that chips away at your sense of self—the love you keep justifying until the mirror doesn’t quite recognise you anymore. It’s melancholy, sure, but never pitiful.
And somehow, through the ache, it still slaps. There’s a subtle catchiness to it—one of those tracks that loops in your head not because of a hook, but because of how it felt. It’s that kind of song. The kind you end up humming under your breath without realising”
Prior to finishing with an interview from last year, there is an article that showed love for babe pourquoi t’es comme ça? That bilingual single is another favourite of mine from 2025. This brilliantly consistently and always-surprising artist whose musical palette is broad and compelling. WPGM took us inside this slinky, sensuous and beautiful song whose lyrics are really interesting:
“Co-produced with longtime collaborator Jack Segal, the track is built to feel close-up: hand-instrumental textures, a supple groove, and a vocal that alternates between measured confession and clipped refrain. The press materials frame the song as a reflection on how past love and mistakes calcify into defenses; that framing fits the music’s small-scale intensity and the choice to keep the arrangement economical rather than ornate.
Lyrically, Convert toggles fluently between French and English to map out distance and self-protection. The opening line, “Babe pourquoi t’es comme ça? / Au lieu d’avouer / Tu laisses tout tomber”, places the song in a conversational register, as if the narrator is working through the limits of a dialogue that never quite happens.
The English interjections (“That’s all I’ve got to say inside my head”) and the recurring admission, “I don’t trust nobody / And I don’t know who’s here to stay”, underline the tension between what is felt and what is said aloud. Even the decision to prefer “le silence aux doutes” reads like a coping mechanism: if doubts can’t be resolved, the song suggests, quiet becomes a form of control.
Musically, that guardedness is mirrored by restraint. Rather than chase a dramatic chorus, Convert hinges the hook on a wordless “Hey, ey, Hey, ooh” figure—more breath than proclamation—which helps the bilingual verses carry the narrative weight.
It’s a small but effective choice: the hook trades breadth for intimacy, letting the verses do the emotional heavy lifting, while the cadence and pocket nod to contemporary R&B without crowding the bossa nova sway. The result feels measured rather than minimal, a stripe of jazz-minded economy that leaves space for subtext.
Context matters here. The rollout positions “babe pourquoi t’es comme ça?” alongside Convert’s earlier singles “MA” and “In My Way,” and notes prior support from BBC Radio 1, COLORS Berlin, Worldwide FM, Rinse FM, Notion Magazine, and Spotify editorial lists including Jazz UK and Le Miel.
Those reference points hint at an audience that is already comfortable with genre-fluid songwriting and bilingual phrasing; the new single doesn’t try to broaden that lane with louder gestures so much as tighten it with clearer lines and a more explicit thematic throughline. In that sense, the track reads like a consolidating move—less a pivot than a careful deepening of tools that are already part of her kit.
If there is a modest risk, it’s that the song’s self-contained scale could feel underpowered to listeners expecting a big cathartic payoff. But that seems deliberate. Convert’s choice to foreground ambivalence—the sense of things “falling down,” the cyclical pull of old patterns, the reluctance to over-explain—aligns with the song’s subject and with a production aesthetic that prizes clarity over spectacle.
Taken together, “babe pourquoi t’es comme ça?” reads as a focused vignette within a larger arc: an artist refining a bilingual, cross-genre language for private conversations that rarely resolve cleanly, and trusting that restraint can carry just as much weight as release”.
Let’s finish off with an interview from Secret Eclectic. I need to interview Gracie Convert some day, as I would love to know more about her childhood and the music she grew up on. More about her Soho Radio show and her plans for the future. It would be amazing to see some in-depth interviews with incredible photoshoots where Gracie Convert looks back on her career and we get these questions that take us from her earliest years to now:
“Describe your sound in 3 words
I’d say honest, vulnerable, cross-genre
Tell us a few things about babe pourquoi t’es comme ça? What is the story behind it?
It started as me reflecting on past love and mistakes, and how those experiences can shape us. It can be heard as a love song, but also as a conversation with myself; the guarded version of me now speaking to the more open, vulnerable version of me from the past. The mix of English and French came naturally because that’s how I often think, I’m trying to integrate that side of me more in my music
The track blends nicely detuned synth pads with a bossa-infused beat. How did this unique combination come to be?
I think being a DJ has made me listen to such a huge variety of music that I naturally start blending sounds that maybe wouldn’t usually come together. With this track, the detuned synth pads came out sample I found, and then when I laid them over a bossa-infused rhythm it just felt right. It’s a mix of my influences, the warmth and groove of bossa with the dreamy, imperfect textures I love from electronic music and indie R&B
What advice would you give to your younger self?
To not overthink it, at the end of the day the world keeps turning”.
Gracie Convert is playing Soul Mama on 5th March. If you are able to go and check her out at the Stratford venue then do, as it is a great space and she will be terrific. I think she has had a wonderful past year. Some excellent new music and press. As I say with artists I spotlight, what does this year hold? More radio shows from Convert. I can imagine a series of singles and maybe an E.P. I do hope that there are some summer shows. Her music would sound perfect in the sun with an adoring crowd cheering her on! Go and follow this fabulous artist. I have loved her work for years. She has a lot of fans already but, given the quality of her music, it warrants…
A whole lot more.
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Follow Gracie Convert
