His texts, raw, are never vulgar and his pop, tangy, is at the crossroads of song and electro. At 23, Kalika is a complete artist with the look of a manga warrior, whose universe hits the retina as much as the ears. Portrait.
Her middle name, Kalika, refers both to Sara la Kali, a saint venerated by the gypsy community, and to Kali, “the most punk of hindu goddesses“. Here is a stage name which, far from being trivial, tells it well.
Because Mia Kalika Roselo partly grew up with her maternal grandmother in the caravan she occupied in Villeneuve-lez-Avignon (South of France) with a community of travelers. And she also lived several months in India, when she was 9 and then when she was 12, with her parents.
Meanwhile, Taylor Hackford’s biopic of American artist Ray Charles, Ray (2004), makes him want to sing. A passion that she feeds through regular participation in karaokes in her region.
A few years of piano and choir later, in 2016, the year of her baccalaureate obtained with honors, it was under the name of Mia that she reached the tele-hook final The New Star.
In the process, the young woman continues to study music to consolidate, under the name of Kalika, her own project.
In 2022, after a handful of covers and singles, this cutting-edge amazon comes out Latchodrom, un first EP whose pop, tangy, is at the crossroads of song and electro and whose lyrics, raw but never vulgar, speak of domestic violence suffered in childhood, sexuality or harassment.
After a crazy tour that took her to almost every city in France and prestigious festivals (Le Printemps de Bourges, Les Francofolies de la Rochelle), Kalika appeared to me on the stage of MaMA, cash, frontal, biting, corrosive, endearing too. So I didn’t wait for the release of her first album (scheduled for 2023) to want to meet her
Kalika received us at her home in the 18th arrondissement of Paris where she lives today…
We talked about her grandmother (a lot), the rhinestone stars she wears on her teeth (a little) and the ones she has in mind, but also about sex or her upcoming album, Farewell monsters. Kalika even gave us a gift: an excerpt from her upcoming novella, a track “super important” for her because it allows “to understand why I’m trash”….
SessionLab by Hortense Volle : a conversation in complete privacy and in 3D audio (spatialized sound). A podcast to listen to, preferably, with headphones.
Production : Benjamin Sarralie
3D mixing : Fabien Mugneret
Production : RFI Lab
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Titles broadcast
► Singles: Ice cubes (2022); It’s weird (2022); My love my friend (2021)
► Excerpts from the EP Latcho Drom (2022- Wagram / Five 7): with the guys ; Olala ; Always the others ; hottie ; summer is dead ; Touch me feat Joanna ; You will leave anyway ; Dinosaur