Feature
LiLi Roquelin’s Newest
Album Offers Quick Pick Me
Ups for Dark Winter Days
BY ALEJANDRA O’CONNELLDOMENECH
Astoria artist and French transplant
LiLi Roquelin will release her fourth
album “Be Inspired” on Dec. 6, which will
be celebrated with a red-carpet event
and live performance at the Village’s
The Bitter End.
“I hope that I can inspire more women
to do this,” Roquelin said, who hopes to
uplift listeners in any way, shape or form.
On the same day the singer releases
her newest album she will also debut a
documentary film offering fans a behind
the scenes look into the work she put
in to producing the record.
“The whole process of the album is
very complicated,” Roquelin remarked.
She directed a total of 12 people while
creating the album — no easy feat for a
female artist with an accent in a maledominated
industry. According to the
artist’s website, only 7 percent of all
music producers are women.
But despite Roquelin’s soft, tremoring
singing voice, the artist has grit.
Roquelin left her hometown of Toulon
to pursue an English language music
career 14 years ago. According to the
artist, there were few opportunities for
young musicians in the seaside city.
But she had known from an early age
that she would end up in New York or
London.
Roquelin began singing at age 4
and writing poetry in English at age
14. But before landing in her dream
city, Roquelin made a stop in Cleveland,
Ohio, a state where extended family on
her mother’s side lived.
The young artist proved herself in the
city’s music scene there during the recording
of the alt-rock album “Neverending
Sundown” with the band Hate Dies
Hard, who then recommended here to
producer Sean Bilovecky. Roquelin and
Bilovecky co-wrote the song “I Saw You.”
After three years in the Buckeye
State, Roquelin uprooted herself again
and finally moved to New York City.
“While in New York I do not see myself
capable of living in any other neighborhood
than Astoria,” said Roquelin,
who lived briefly in Inwood. Like many
new Astorians, what attracted artist to
the neighborhood was its reputation as
a melting pot.
“I am from the south of France along
the Mediterranean, so I feel more Mediterranean
than French,” Roquelin said.
Astoria’s Greek influence, immigrant
communities and penchant for new artists
helped the artist feel comfortable
enough to perform roughly written songs
in bars and cafes.
Like the ever-changing neighborhood
that Roquelin now calls home,
the last year has been a time of growth
for Roquelin. Her new album has a
more upbeat tone and features four
songs in French, which is unusual
for the anglophile. Ironically, a dark
period of mourning after a friend
and fellow bandmate Sean Barringer
passed away in the summer of 2015
was the catalyst for the more upbeat
outlook on life.
Roquelin had to travel back to her
American roots — Cleveland — in order
to attend Barringer’s memorial.
“I wanted to have a music companion.
The ukulele is so small that I could
strum it in the car and this is when I
started learning chords on the instrument,”
Roquelin said. “The uke has this
little vibe to it. You can only play happy
songs and it cheered me up. It helped
me go through it.”
For more information about Roquelin’s
new album and red-carpet event
check out http://www.liliroquelin.com.
38 NOVEMBER 2018 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
Photo via facebook.com/liliroquelin
/www.liliroquelin.com
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