Namibian Sun

After having made some major moves throughout her career, tjil found it important to get some words from the singer herself for ourselves, our devoted readers and the culture.

Monique English has been an amazing singer for some time now, winning awards and numerous music competitions. With time her sound has evolved. She maintains that her sound can only get better. She revealed that she has not been in studio for about a year. “I am struggling immensely getting back to writing and composing overall. But I am positive that inspiration will come soon and I can get back into studio and release new and better music,” said English.

She mentioned that even though she is known for being a singer, she finds it challenging to try and explain her sound.

“To be honest, I think my voice is not the typical type of voice you’ll get. I am sometimes soft and sometimes I belt. I can go into my falsetto and flow out of it quite easily, and that’s what makes my sound so different.”

If you follow her on Instagram you will know that Monique English is big on doing music covers and she is pretty good at it. Asked where her love for remaking songs stems from and what she enjoys the most about it, the singer said: Doing covers is how it all started for me. My first cover was on Good Ones Go by Drake. I up-loaded it onto Facebook, and I was blown away by the response from all my followers. It may be hard to believe, but I prefer singing covers rather than my own songs.”

She mentioned that when she gets to put out exactly what she wants, regarding production on her music, maybe then will she get the urge to perform it more than covers. “Another thing about covers is, it enables you to practice your vocal abilities. There are thousands of different artists with different vocal techniques and abilities out there, from which we as artists can learn from. But at the same time we have to try and make it our own and have our own sound,” she shared.

She mentioned Rihanna as one of her biggest musical influences but with R&B growing again, she listens and draws inspiration from H.E.R, Ella Mai, Sabrina Claudito, Kehlani and Syvn Streeter among others.

Probably a clichéd question, but tjil was certain people would like to know what has been Monique English’s highlight of her music career thus far. She mentioned performing at the Namibia Annual Music Awards in two consecutive years as one of her highlights thus far. “Also winning the Female Artist of the Year in 2017; it is every Namibian artist’s dream to perform on the biggest music stage in the county and win one of the biggest accolades as well,” said English on her accomplishments.

Having achieved so much, we are sure it has not been easy. Spelling out some of the challenges she has encountered on her journey, English said: “It’s definitely all the criticism. After winning the awards in 2017 and 2018, I had a lot of backlash from the public and media.

“It was heart-drenching to say the least, but I dealt with it. I ignored them and did not respond and I also got a lot of support and encouragement from the people who do support me. I know how hard I’ve worked for this and that there’s a lot I still have to do,” she said.

Her musical plans for the rest of the year entails working on her new album. “I recently set up my own studio at home just to make the production of the new album a bit easier,” she said.

MICHAEL KAYUNDE