"Adan On Dot Soléy" by Célia Wa

Solar energy with a lunar force. This is how I describe Célia Wa's universe. I fell in love with her first album "Wa" (2012) which I listened to for the first time in 2019. As she said in her interview, her style can’t be categorized. Her musical roots in hip-hop, jazz, (neo)soul, gwoka are heard all the more when she explores electro sounds. I chose "Adan on Dòt Soléy" to close the first season of this Music Video Focus section which tells the Guadeloupe that I carry in my heart.

Natural Guadeloupe

Although I found out about the mini-album late compared to when it was released in 2018, I was ready for the release of the music video. I don't like swimming in the ocean. All this immensity that human beings try in vain to dominate. All this beauty that can give life and death... However, I’ve always seen the beach as a place of connection between the elements. I can spend a whole day sitting on the beach just watching nature. The foam of the waves absorbed by the sand, the leaves shivering under the trade winds, the ants scurrying along a coconut tree lying on the ground, the sun engulfed by the sea. Maybe it was the lockdown effect, maybe it was because I haven’t set a foot on a beach in Guadeloupe for more than ten years... But I felt a certain serenity, a form of plenitude in front of the nonartificial, full natural settings in the music video. Contrary to the postcard image created for tourists, here the beach is the space to express its humanity and spirituality. Célia Wa reminds us in her interview that some of our beaches are also cemeteries for enslaved African people. This music video succeeds in bringing another look on the beach in a symbolism proper to the Caribbean history. It takes us into another dimension.

Timeless Guadeloupe

These natural settings give the impression of permanence in a constant change. The cliffs and trees entwined in ordered chaos show the longevity of their own existence. This visual between earthly and lunar desert doesn’t match the current image of Guadeloupe. According to your point of view, it’s either presented as a tourist's paradise or an arena of the constant struggle to assert one’s identity and dignity. In this natural and uncluttered setting, far from capitalist concerns, our oppressive daily life is forgotten. There’s just the freedom to be. As in “Lè Ou Lov 2069” by the iShango Sound duo or “Rèv An Mwen” by FLO, these few minutes make us... at least, make me see simultaneously the Guadeloupe of the present, the past, and the future. A few minutes to remember the beauty of this Guadeloupe where everything is gathered to live happily in simplicity. A few minutes to imagine other development alternatives. A few minutes to celebrate ourselves.

In conclusion, a visual of Caribbean science fiction, a theme in homage to the ancestors, a text in Creole... "Adan on Dòt Soléy" gives us a glimpse of a beautiful evolution that the "KARAYIBFUTURSOUND" concept will have.