Malika Tirolien

Malika Tirolien is a remarkable vocalist, musician, songwriter and producer from Guadeloupe, now living in Montreal. She is garnering international attention with her creative collaborations. Highlights include the release of the album HIGHER in April 2022, a 2019 Grammy nomination with Bokanté “What Heat”, 2,3 million YouTube views for the video “I’m Not The One (with Snarky Puppy)”, a 20-country tour with Bokanté, #5 on R&B iTunes Canada with the album “Sur La Voie Ensoleillée” and collaborations with Bokanté, Snarky Puppy, Lara Fabian, Coral Egan, Groundfood, Kalmunity Vibe, Vox Sambou. Her newest venture is the brand new album “Gen Y Lens” released in November 2024 with her high-soul duo project GeminiCrab.

About the album ‘Gen Y Lens’:

‘There are a lot of exciting sound effects hidden in the noble production – you can look for them or just dance to this groove monster’ Westzeit

About the album ‘Higher’:

“Malika Tirolien dares to do something […]. The choruses may often sound catchy and pretend to have a pop character, but it is not quite that simple. In the detail view as well as in the overall view, “Higher” does not deliver clap-along music for primary school lessons, it is not for beginners and especially not by beginners.” SWR2, Album of the Week

“A strongly afrofuturistic, spiritually charged work of art she creates (…) with her first-class band” Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Inspired, versatile and modern melange of soul, funk and jazz, of world, hip hop and folk. (…) versatile and sophisticated: rapt ballads alternate with soulful uptempo grooves and heavy hip hop beats. Refined at all times by her wonderful voice.” Westzeit

“R&B, soul and hip hop elements crash unfiltered on top of each other in a futuristic sound garment and above it all this voice that seems to effortlessly succeed in everything” Jazzthing

“The eleven songs present themselves as a fusion of Afrofuturistic soul-jazz, driven by powerful rhythms and Tirolien’s emotional honeyed voice. Here we discover a performer with soul, a sense of impulse, who wants to convey a message and appeal to a clientele attentive to the changes in our world.” Jazzthing

“Not only linguistically does the singer bring her roots to her new album, but musically there is pretty much everything that has influenced her in music: soul, jazz, R’n’B, hip hop, combined with French rap interludes.” JAZZTHETIK

“Powerhouse vocals Alluring compositions…” JAZZ TIMES

“Whether it’s on this big stage or an intimate club, Tirolien’s powerful commanding voice has incredible range, a warm tone, and remarkable control…” NOISEY VICE

“’High soul’, soul-jazz with robust rhythms in line with the works of famed Meshell Ndegeocello, neo-soul (on the superb tracks Better and Dreamin’) and rap (Sisters) add depth and dynamism to this audacious album.” LE DEVOIR

The last few years have been busy for Malika Tirolien – after the release of her second solo
album “HIGHER”, touring and collaborating with Snarky Puppy and her own headlining European tours through eight countries at around 40 concerts, Malika Tirolien is back with a new musical venture – Malika Tirolien’s GeminiCrabs new album “Gen Y Lens”, released on November 01, 2024. This will be followed by further tour dates in fall 2024 through Europe.
“GeminiCrab” is the name of the Montreal-based HighSoul music duo consisting of Felix award
winner keyboardist/producer Caulder Nash (Jonathan Roy) and Grammy nominee
vocalist/producer Malika Tirolien (Bokanté).

GeminiCrab combines a plethora of music styles including R&B, Soul and jazz-Hip Hop
highlighted by honest lyrics in English, as well as French from a Gen Y Lens, the title of their
brand new album. They playfully reflect on several eras of music through 7 catchy songs about
love, adulting and the multi-faceted realities of millennials. Two singles will accompany the
release, the first single, A Love That Will Last (release Sep 20th), is an R&B ballad that takes us
back to the 90’s lush chords and arrangements, painting a story about owning responsibility in
one’s part in a failed relationship and making space for the next partner. The second single, Ride (release Oct 18th), is a catchy mushroom trip from a perspective you wouldn’t expect:
mushrooms. It details everything that will happen to the person who ate or drank them with
humour and accuracy. The funky RnB song mixing English and French with touches of Hip hop
was created with Jean-Michel Frédéric during a residency at the PHI Centre using binaural
technology and will have you singing along by the end of the tune.

The duo met years ago through Montreal’s Kalmunity Vibe Collective. They’ve also played
together in Malika Tirolien’s solo project and decided to start a band together after a Phi Center
residency that had them create songs with the binaural audio technology. Caulder came up with
GeminiCrab (the name) as the acknowledgement of each member’s astrological sign. For the
recording of the album, they brought in good friends and renowned musicians such as Michael
League and Ronny Desinor to play on some of the tracks.