Yseult defies definition. A powerhouse. A poetess. A paradox.
“As an artist, I would like fixed reinvention,” explains the French singer-songwriter. “It’s on the coronary heart of my work… like a snake that’s continually shedding its pores and skin.”
It’s this inventive urgency that has fuelled her countless experimentation together with her sound and her picture, transcending musical genres and subcultures. And her newest incarnation, which sees Yseult shapeshift between femme fatale and a futuristic imaginative and prescient for GRAZIA’s Call of the Wild cover shoot – a hypnotic examine in kind and defiance, the place gentle, shadow, and distortion collide, reimagining style into structure, fantasy, and pure visible drive – isn’t any exception.
Fittingly, she pays tribute to Grace Jones, as illustrated by Richard Bernstein, for the art work of her 1977 album Portfolio in all her energy, power, and drama – each as an artist and a girl. A fantasy in movement, it’s a job she embodies effortlessly and makes her personal. “Grace was by no means nearly garments; she was about disruption, and I relate to that,” she explains. “I really like taking dangers, pushing silhouettes, making individuals uncomfortable – in the easiest way. She was forward of her time, and I’m obsessive about being forward of mine.” That is simply the newest within the many faces and fortunes of Yseult.
“Each period, I burn, I rebuild, I rise, I create, I destroy, I reimagine. That’s the work of an artist: chasing your subsequent reality.”
France first fell in love with Yseult Marie Onguenet when she reached the ultimate of the TV expertise present Nouvelle Star in 2014. The remainder of the world fell in love together with her 10 years later, after her haunting rendition of My Means on the closing ceremony for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics – the one French chanteuse chosen by the host nation to fly its flag, alongside Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and the Purple Sizzling Chili Peppers. But her journey to affix the ranks of France’s most iconic feminine artists has been as complicated and sudden as Yseult herself. Following her Nouvelle Star breakthrough, she was rapidly signed to Polydor and launched her eponymous album, Yseult, in 2015. Two years later, she parted methods together with her file firm and the profession that had been mapped out for her to start out her personal label, YYY. She has since dropped three EPs as an impartial artist: Rouge and Noir in 2019, and Brut in 2020, plus the 2024 album Psychological.
On her determination to pursue her personal future, she declares, “Freedom is priceless. I couldn’t let another person maintain the keys to my artwork, particularly as a Black pop artist. I needed to study the enterprise, construct my very own label and ensure my voice couldn’t be muted. It’s a struggle each single day, however now I name the photographs and personal my masters, and I sleep at night time realizing my artwork is actually mine. I’m not simply making music, I’m constructing my legacy.”
But, greater than 10 years after she first discovered fame, the French-born sensation with Cameroonian roots reveals she’s nonetheless preventing a battle to be seen, revered, and understood. “I struggle by present loudly – by taking on area and refusing to shrink,” she insists. “My struggle isn’t simply mine, both. It’s a blueprint for anybody who’s been instructed they don’t belong.”
A decade within the public eye has solely made her extra decided. “My power comes from the individuals who carry me once I’m exhausted, like my followers, my sisters, my group,” she admits. “They remind me why I hold going. I desire a world the place we don’t should struggle to be seen, however till then I’ll hold preventing.”
How Yseult aspires to take up area within the music trade is by radically reimagining its magnificence requirements. And he or she has carried out so with such defiance and success that L’Oréal Paris made her a worldwide spokesperson in 2021.
“For hundreds of years, the Black physique has been labelled, judged, politicised, fetishised, and virtually by no means seen as merely human,” she laments. “My mission is to reclaim it, to have fun it. My physique shouldn’t be an object, however a narrative, a weapon, a wonderful love letter. Each time I present up, I rewrite the narrative. Interval!”
Does she imagine she’s redefining Western magnificence requirements? “I don’t assume I’ve ‘redefined’ something,” she rejects. “I simply exist loudly and typically, present as a Black, stunning, curvy girl appears like probably the most radical factor I can do. The trade nonetheless treats our bodies like mine as uncommon, however we’re not uncommon, we’re simply erased.” However, laughing confidently within the faces of her critics, she challenges, “Perhaps it’s as a result of I’m the longer term that they’re scared?”
Sultry, smoky, and staccato, her vocals, just like the singer herself, additionally resolutely refuse to be outlined. “I believe my voice is a spell – it pulls you in,” she gives. “Typically it’s uncooked and emotional, typically it heals, nevertheless it at all times leaves a mark.”
Her dizzyingly numerous physique of labor has to this point spanned la chanson française, R&B, pop, neo-soul, lure, post-punk and electro – and every new style and sound is accompanied by its personal aesthetic. “Up to now, I wanted to be susceptible, and now I should be fierce and unapologetic,” she tells us. “Psychological was my method of entering into my energy and exhibiting it on stage. I hold my private life personal so I can keep centered and hold evolving. I believe individuals ought to let go of the concept somebody – particularly a girl – can solely be one factor. It’s a lot extra thrilling to be every little thing.”
And as an artist who transforms as her music evolves, few perceive the ability of styling in addition to Yseult. “Vogue is how I let my music take form,” she explains. “For instance, for my final venture, Psychological, I dressed like an Amazon – leather-based, physique, darkish power. Lady is my new ’80s pop fantasy album, and I see vibrant materials, silhouettes with angle, and large shoulders. Vogue doesn’t simply amplify my music, it interprets it right into a world you may stroll into.”
Luxurious style homes are paying consideration, too. In July 2020, Olivier Rousteing invited her to carry out her songs ‘Corps’ and ‘Noir’ as a part of his Balmain sur Seine spectacle at Paris Haute Couture Week, with Yseult reducing an iconic determine in an exquisitely minimize, strong-shouldered, caped mini gown crusing previous the Eiffel Tower.
“Olivier Rousteing was one of many first to point out me that style could be empowering when it’s carried out with love and imaginative and prescient,” Yseult recollects. “Balmain makes me really feel like a warrior on stage.”
And when requested which Maison she wish to work with, with out hesitation, she responds, “I’d like to carry that very same power to Chanel to create a second the place my physique is a part of that legacy.”
Forward of the North American tour for her newest album, Yseult is in New York “soaking within the chaos of Vogue Week” earlier than flying straight again to LA for rehearsals. “It’s a season of glam and grind, precisely how I prefer it,” she smiles.
The 2026 North American leg of the Psychological tour begins in January at Union Stage in Washington, DC, adopted by dates in New York, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. “The stage is my sanctuary. No filter, no lies; simply me, my voice and a dream. On stage, I really feel unstoppable, cherished, seen and understood.”
Regardless of her visceral stage presence, surprisingly, she reveals that her stay reveals are when she “stops performing and steps into her true self. “That’s the place I cease enjoying a job and begin changing into who I actually am. I’m simply, like, utterly free!” And, in doing so, maybe she’s capable of share the purest distillation of her soul and the truest model of Yseult to this point.
Audiences on her North American tour can anticipate “an entire new period”, she guarantees. “I’m including some tracks from my subsequent album, Lady, to the setlist, and my all-girl LA band is bringing the warmth. I can’t wait to see my American followers once more; the best way they embraced Psychological was so particular, and I do know they’ll really feel Lady simply as deeply.” The Psychological stay present would be the final time Yseult will likely be enjoying small. “This tour could begin in golf equipment, however the dream is larger,” she teases. “Who is aware of, perhaps in the future we’ll be at Madison Sq. Backyard!”
Her inventive co-conspirators have included Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, French Montana, and a TikTok-famous music of the summer season with Sevdaliza, however she’s not content material to cease there. “I need to go world as a pop artist,” she proclaims. “I’d love to satisfy ladies I love, akin to Doja Cat, SZA, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae – not simply to make music with them however to share our experiences. It’s nearly love and sisterhood.”
The grasp of her personal metamorphoses, Yseult has irrevocably proved that she is the creator of the narratives about herself she tells the world. And if she has Her Means, the following chapter in her compelling story will likely be often known as: “The French lady who turned a worldwide celebrity with out asking for permission.”
DISCOVER GRAZIA’S FULL PHOTO SHOOT WITH YSEULT HERE.
CREATIVE DIRECTION: DANÉ STOJANOVIC. PHOTOGRAPHY: TAREK MAWAD. FASHION STYLIST: JONATHAN HUGUET. HAIR: JEAN-LUC AMARIN. MAKEUP: CLOTILDE PUVIS DE CHAVANNES. MANICURE: NAFISSA DJABI. SET DESIGN: ISABELLE CLOTTEN. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & CASTING DIRECTOR: JEAN-MARC MONDELET. SENIOR PRODUCER: STEFF HAWKER. FASHION ASSISTANT: REBECCA PERRIER. LIGHTING ASSISTANT: ALESSANDRO FERRAIOLI. TALENT: YSEULT
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