Welcome to On the Rise, a BAZAAR.com series featuring the breakout talents everyone will be talking about. Get to know these fresh faces on the verge of stardom.
Everybody starts somewhere, and for pop and R&B singer Lolo Zouaï, it all began with a nerve-wracking show. "My first real show as Lolo Zouaï was not that long ago, it was four years ago," she says in the latest episode of our series On the Rise. "I just performed onstage with a laptop, and I was just playing my tracks and singing with the mic. I was so nervous, my voice was shaking, and right when I got offstage, I started crying."
![High Highs to Low Lows [Explicit]](https://hips.hearstapps.com/vader-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/1581617896-519XMSPMFbL.jpg?crop=1xw:1xh;center,top&resize=980:* "High Highs to Low Lows [Explicit]")
Still, tough beginnings don't make an ending. "It just took some time to build up the confidence, but you need to have those kind of shitty shows at first where you feel bad," she continues, "just so you can learn to get better so that you never have to feel that again. 'Cause I never want to feel that again."
Since releasing her debut album, High Highs to Low Lows, last year, Zouaï has proven herself to be a versatile and experimental artist. Later this year, she'll open for Dua Lipa on her Future Nostalgia European arena tour.
Read on for Zouaï's take on her career and performing internationally, and watch the full video above to see the entire interview.
On releasing High Highs to Low Lows …
"Releasing my album was probably one of my biggest accomplishments ever in my life, if not the biggest," Zouaï says. "It just felt good because I felt like I had no expectations. I didn't feel any type of pressure. I know a lot of people are like, 'Oh, you have so long to make your first album.' But, I kind of didn't feel that way. I feel like the second album is maybe slightly more pressure. I just felt excited that I was able to share what I wanted to make."
On working with Dua Lipa …
"I just met Dua a week ago for the first time and we got along so well," she says of the pop star she'll be touring with this spring. "She's really supportive and it's really exciting, because I'm gonna be playing arenas. First time, just me, Lolo me."
Is she nervous? "I actually don't feel pressure for some reason because it's not my tour," she says. "It just feels like an exciting chance to have new fans and share the music with more people, but maybe once it approaches, I will get some stress. For now, I'm not trippin'."
Zouaï recently released the visuals for her track, "Desert Rose," from High Highs to Low Lows. Watch the full video below.
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As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers' rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset.
