LiLi Roquelin

LiLi Roquelin (born in Toulon, France) is a French-born American "adult contemporary music", post-trip hop and alternative rock singer, composer and songwriter from Astoria, Queens, New York City. Roquelin is most notable for her songs which won Best Music Video at several film festivals ^[1] and received TV and Film Placements: "I Saw You", "Blues Alone", "Should you get mad", "Renew", "Keep This For You", "The Only One", "Thank You", "Like a Feather".

Biography

Roquelin grew up in the south of France, learning music from her multi-instrumentalist father when she was four years old. She played several gigs as a teenager, both solo and in various bands. She then left France to pursue a career in the United States.^[2] She first moved to Cleveland-Akron, Northeast Ohio area and fronted Phizzy Lager^[3] and then the alternative hard-rock Kent, Ohio band Hate Dies Hard, and released with them in 2006 an album entitled Neverending Sundown and engineered by Bill Korecky (Mushroomhead's Producer).^[4][5]

After the album’s release and promotion, Roquelin was introduced to producer Sean Bilovecky (Disengage), who infused the sounds of trip hop with piano compositions in their collaboration song "I Saw You". Later that year, Roquelin moved to New York City. The Music Video for "I Saw You" was included in her self-titled EP and became a winner for Best Music Video at the Queens (NY) International Film Festival in November 2008 and Best Music Video at the 2009 Indie Gathering Film Festival.^[6]

Roquelin recruited Marc Urselli, a three-time Grammy Award winning engineer to mix and master the recordings from her EP and launched an online crowdfunding campaign to help cover the expenses of the EP, a recording of down-tempo, trip hop songs composed by Roquelin with her lyrics moving between English and French accompanied by her piano arrangements.^[7] "Blues Alone" received an Honorable Mention at the 2009 John Lennon Songwriting Contest.^[8]

Roquelin released a full-length album Will you hate the rest of the world or will you renew your life? and a music video for Should you get mad in February 2010.^[9] The video was directed by Arnaud Muller (U2) at RNO Pictures and was in the official selection of ZFF Film Festival (London, Miami, LA).^[10] It received the award of 2nd Place for Best Music Video in pop category at the 2010 Indie Gathering Film Festival and Convention.^[11] The album also includes a cover of Danny Elfman's "Sally’s Song" (from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas)^[12] in French.^[13]

Her influences are The Beatles, Radiohead, Noel Gallagher, and Ingrid Michaelson; she has performed at One Penn Plaza in NYC for the 9-11 commemoration ^[14] and has played various venues including The Bitter End in NYC.^[15]

Lifetime (TV network)'s Show Dance Moms used Roquelin’s song "Renew" for a dance routine entitled "Sinful" (season 1, episode 9, first air-date 09/07/11).^[16] The show used another of her songs "Keep This For You" for a Hunger Games inspired dance routine called "The Huntress" on Dance Moms season 2 episode 17 - Lifetime (TV network) (first aired on 06/26/2012).^[17] At the end of June 2012, LiLi Roquelin was working on finishing up her 3rd solo studio album. Her previous records landed her diverse placements in documentaries and films ^[18] such as the soundtrack of Attack of La Nina by Matchstick Productions.^[19]

LiLi Roquelin released a new album "Beautiful Sun" in December 2012.^[20] On January 31, 2013 she premiered the music video for her song "Thank You" which appeared on her YouTube page the next day. There is also a mini-documentary on the making of "Beautiful Sun.".^[21]

Her music on "Beautiful sun" melds the two worlds of adult contemporary and exploratory pop. The songs are described as Blue, jazz-influenced trip hop (title-track), gritty-guitar progressive arrangement ("Try to remember"), minor key pop song with inflections of the blues ("Don't wait"), recalling the works of Sarah Mclachlan, Kate Bush, Tori Amos. Some of the musicians on "Beautiful Sun" are cellist Christopher Marion, guitarist and bassist Askold Buk (Hayley Westenra, Hugh Masekela).^[22] She composed and arranged all of the music on the album and recruited Grammy winning mixing engineer Marc Urselli and Roman Vail, mastering engineer at JLM Mastering Studios (Moby, Sinead O’Connor, The Black Crowes).^[23]

Her song "Blues Alone", off her self-titled solo EP (2008), was her third featured track on Lifetime (TV network)'s show Dance Moms ("Return to Grace", season 3 episode 14, first-aired date April 2, 2013) for the main group dance routine. Dance Moms has a strong fan-base and ratings of 2 to 3 million viewers per episode. The album "Beautiful Sun" has gathered media attention, such as The Los Angeles Examiner and a whole page review in East Coast Paper The Aquarian Weekly with her name featured on the cover, and written by award-winning music critics John Pfeiffer.^[24]

In September 2013 Roquelin was welcomed by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (The GRAMMYs) as a Voting Member. On September 26, 2013, LiLi Roquelin was invited to perform God Bless America at a corporate event at the elegant Terrace on the Park in New York City. Six-hundred people attended, including NY1, WNYW FOX5, New York Mayoral Candidate Joe Lhota and more.^[25]

On November 21, 2013 she premiered her new music video for "The Only One" at a Music & Film event that she presented.^[26] It is a One shot (music video) where Roquelin walks down a path while various men appear around her. At the end of the video, the guy she runs into turns out to be ‘The One’.^[27] It was directed by Kyle Lavore who has worked on films like The Amazing Spider-Man and Men in Black III. "The Only One" is Track number 5 on album "Beautiful Sun", a Rock song with alternative guitars, inspired in part by her past Rock music experience.^[28]

On May 2, 2014 she performed as the opening act for Bruce Sudano (producer for Michael Jackson, Dolly Parton and his wife Donna Summer) at The Bitter End.^[29][30]

During the summer of 2014 her Music Video "The Only One" screened at several Film Festivals: Rahway International Short Film Festival, Art All Night Trenton International Film Festival, 7th Annual Hamilton Music and Film Festival in Hamilton, Canada (Sept 28th), and at the 19th International Indie Gathering Festival where it was awarded "Best Pop Music Video".^[31] On July 25, she headlined the popular Ginger New York Show LIVE on NYC's TV Networks MNN (Manhattan Neighborhood Network), hosted by Ms. Ginger Broderick (Good Day New York, WNBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox Business News, Bloomberg, NY1 and WOR Radio, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Wealth Manager).^[32][33] Roquelin's album "Beautiful Sun" was approved to be added to the Music Genome Project on Pandora Radio. "Should you Get Mad" can be heard in the show "World's Strangest" airing in August on the Science Channel. As of August 2014, her videos had reached over 1 Million views on YouTube, with 680,000 views on her official YouTube channel.^[34]

On September 16, 2014 she released a Hip-Hop Remix of her song "Bliss of My Soul" featuring Bronx Native Rap Artist R.e.a.P. The track was remixed by Titus and mastered by Roman Vail at JLM Studios. R.e.a.P is also a Songwriter, Producer, and Engineer who worked at JAMBOX Entertainment with Pitbull (rapper), Ludacris, Nina Sky, Torch (American rapper) from Maybach Music Group (MMG), Idris Elba, Hurricane Chris (rapper).^[35]

Songs from her album "Beautiful Sun" made it to the 57th Grammy Awards Ballot with the following entries: Best Arrangement, Instruments/Vocals "Thank You" (Acoustic), Best Pop Solo Performance: "Like A Feather", Record of The Year: "Thank You", Song of the Year: "Beautiful Sun", Best Rock Performance: "The Only One", Best Rock Song: "The Only One", Best Music Video: "The Only One".^[36]

In December 2014 Roquelin released a new Music Video "Like a Feather" animated by Indie Venture with footage directed by Patrick Jung. The video was shown at a private Music, Film and Animation event that she presented in New York City with support from Asifa-East (International Animated Film Association, East Coast Chapter).^[37]

In March 2015 she released an indie-pop Single entitled "Smile".^[38] The uplifting song is the result of a collaboration between Roquelin (vocals, lyrics, vocal arrangements and music) and accomplished film composer, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Peter Lobo (drums, guitar, bass, piano, arrangements, music and production). Lobo has worked with such artists as Dawn Robinson (En Vogue), Yoko Ono, Whitney Houston, The Dave Matthews Band, Ziggy Marley, Blues Traveler and Marc DeSisto (Pink Floyd and U2).^[39]

"Thank You" by LiLi Roquelin is used for a solo dance routine, themed "The Woods" and performed by International Dancing Star Maddie Ziegler, also known as the Dancer for Sia Furler. It won 1st Place/ 1st Overall at the Sheer Talent Dance Competition at Spokane Convention Center in Washington State on 05/16/15 and aired on Dance Moms Season 5 Episode 29 on Lifetime (TV network) on July 28, 2015. Maddie also performed the same number on May 30 at the Abby Lee Dance Company Los Angeles School Grand Opening and on June 20 at ALDC's Annual Showcase in Pittsburgh.^[40][41]

In November 2015 she wrote and released a song "Abolitionistas" produced by Titus, exclusively for Freedom Ladder, a non-profit organization which focuses on ending the Trafficking of Children. The Director of Freedom Ladder has been chosen as one of the New York Abolitionists just like Tina Fey and Michael Bloomberg.^[42] The alternate version of the Song is called "Liberty".^[42]

Her "Like a Feather" Music Video was in the official selection of several Film Festivals, it received a Nomination for Best Short Film at the Golden Door International Film Festival ^[43] and won "Rising Star Award" at the 11th Canada International Film Festival in April 2016.^[44]

In early 2016 she started working on an upcoming new album, spending a lot of time in studio sessions.^[45] In March, Roquelin launched a special "Every Other Monday Video" Playlist on her popular YouTube channel, with cover performance videos of such classics as "Dreams" (Fleetwood Mac), "Breathe Me" (Sia), "I've Got this Friend" (The Civil Wars), "And Your Bird Can Sing" (The Beatles), and a fan-favorite Ukulele cover of The Offspring's "Why don't you get a Job". She also plays the ukulele on her new performance video called "Petunia's Song" (September 2016), and describes her album in the works as having a different mood, being more upbeat but still with a lot of piano.^[46] In April 2017 she performed new songs at a fundraising event at The Bitter End to help raise awareness and funds for Suicide Prevention and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.^[47]

Discography

Albums

• Neverending Sundown (with Hate Dies Hard) (2006)
• Will you hate the rest of the world or will you renew your life? (2010)
• Beautiful Sun (2012)

EPs

• LiLi Roquelin (2008)

Songs

• "I Saw You" (2008)
• "Blues Alone" (2009)
• "Should You Get Mad" (2010)
• "Renew" (2011)
• "Keep This For You" (2012)
• "Thank You" (2013)
• "The Only One" (2013)
• "Like a Feather" (2014)

Singles

• "Bliss of My Soul" Feat. R.e.a.P (Hip-Hop Remix) (2014)
• "Smile" (LiLi Roquelin & Peter Lobo) (2015)
• "Abolitionistas", "Liberty" (2015)

References

External links

• Official website
• LiLi Roquelin at YouTube
• LiLi Roquelin at Soundcloud