Laureen Rebeha Zouaï (zoo-eye; born on March 5th, 1995) also known as Lolo Zouaï is a French-born American singer, songwriter, and producer. Born to a French mother and an Algerian father in Paris, France she later moved to the Sunset District of San Francisco when she was just 3 months old after her parents won the Visa lottery. Lolo later graduated from Lowell High school in 2013. She began making music in her teens and made her way to the stage in 2017 and later released her debut album, High Highs to Low Lows in 2019 and her sophomore album, PLAYGIRL was released on October 14, 2022.
Background
Award-winning singer, songwriter, and producer, Lolo Zouaï describes her songs as "bittersweet bangers", a blend of wistful emotions and hard-hitting beats. Shaped by her French-Algerian background and her Bay Area and immigrating to San Francisco from Paris after her parents won the Visa lottery, you can hear the range of these cultural influences in her music, lyrics that seamlessly switch between French and English with a little bit of Arabic. Her earliest influences ranging from E-40 to Edith Piaf, fans get a sense of Lolo's artistic ethos, multi-dimensional, multi-lingual, autobiographical, and instinctively experimental and sweetly sensual yet dark and moody.
Lolo began making music while messing around with GarageBand on her iPhone to bring her earliest songs to life, recreating beats from rap songs she loved and laying her own melodies over them. She's a self-taught songwriter and producer which co-wrote "Still Down" featured on H.E.R's Grammy-winning self-titled album. Her skill in songwriting and production which has only expanded since and her strong dedication gained her the award of the Abe Olman Scholarship for young songwriters from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2018, Lolo was the opening act for Alina Baraz, "Alina Baraz: The Tour". Later in 2022, Lolo was the opening act for the Future Nostalgia Tour for 27 shows in America and Canada.
Her debut album, High Highs to Low Lows has gained over 100 million streams and her sophomore album, PLAYGIRL was released on October 14, 2022.
On November 2022, Lolo was listed on the Forbes 30 under 30 2023 list for musicians. In a recent interview at the 2023 Billboard Women In Music, Lolo revealed that her contract with RCA Records has ended and she is currently an independent artist under her own record label, Keep it on the Lolo. On July 13, 2023. Lolo Zouaï signed with ZZO's management team.
Music Career
High Highs to Low Lows
Lolo Zouaï's debut album, High Highs to Low Lows is a cohesive, handpicked combination of her passions and experiences—a mix of hard-hitting tracks and introspective writing and is laced with Arabic melodies and classical French influences
Moi is a sultry, defiant record, Ride showcases Lolo's vocal skills and hit-making prowess, and Summers in Vegas is a sweet melodious song about her childhood trips to Las Vegas to visit her father's pizza shop. The result is a fresh, distinctive, and unique—truly a global debut.
PLAYGIRL
Lolo Zouaï's second studio album, PLAYGIRL which features previously released single such as, Give Me a Kiss, Blur and pl4yg1rl showcases a unique blend of y2k-esque R&B, hyphy-club-pop and West Coast hip-hop that creates an ideal setting for the PLAYGIRL lifestyle. This album comes after her debut album, High Highs to Low Lows which amassed over 250 million streams worldwide and received positive coverage from publications like Vogue, Pitchfork, Office, Dazed, MTV, I-D, the Grammys and more. Her musical success was recognized in 2021 when she was nominated for Best International Pop Video at the 2021 UK MVA's for the official music video of her single, Galipette.
Lolo's main vision for the album being her refusal to confine herself to any one genre or style, having that revelation inspired her to make an album that would resemble her life, thus unlocking a new perspective on making music.
Being playful, passionate and bold, Lolo invites fans to delve deeply into the arcade world of PLAYGIRL and record's visceral pop sound. With PL4YG1RL, DREAMGIRL, and PARTYGIRL as the heart of the album—each separated by their own colour code on the tracklist—Lolo creates a multifaceted world that caters to the spirt of youthful love and genuine independence while advocating confident, strong and electrifying feminine pop.
Songs like Tamagotchi (intermission) and Free Trial embraces the upbeat side of PL4YG1RL, while Don't Buy Me Flowers and VHS take an intimate look into DREAMGIRL's psyche and Crazy Sexy Dream Girl inspires PARTYGIRL's unabashed independence. Together, these songs form an emotionally vast and sonically unique project. Lolo remains to be a cultural phenomenon with multiple elements and shows no signs of slowing down with the album's release and is set to tour on the PLAYGIRL World Tour starting March 8, 2023.
Discography
Main article: Discography
Studio Albums
- High Highs to Low Lows (2017)
- PLAYGIRL (2022)
Tours
Headlining
- Lolo Zouaï Live in Concert (2018)
- High Highs to Low Lows Tour (2019)
- PLAYGIRL World Tour (2023)
Opening Acts
- Alina Baraz – Alina Baraz: The Tour (2018)
- Dua Lipa – Future Nostalgia Tour (2022)