Haitian-American
Haitian Americans (french: Haïtiens-Américains; ht, ayisyen ameriken) are a group of Americans of full or partial Haitian origin or descent. The largest proportion of Haitians in the United States live in Little Haiti to the South Florida area ...
recording artist, singer and songwriter.
Biography
2011: Breakthrough and ''Jungle Pop – EP''
Luna brought out her self-created genre "''Jungle Pop''" with her first EP of the same name in December 2011, handling the songwriting exclusively. A month later, her track "''Dancing in Dirt''" landed on
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
's list of "buzzed-about" singles and
Jon Ali
Jon is a shortened form of the common given name Jonathan, derived from "YHWH has given", and an alternate spelling of John, derived from "YHWH has pardoned".The Hustle Standard, Kavedo, LCR, The Fluu, and others.
She has worked with street artist and DJ, GREATecletic, who also remixed one of her songs "''Ra Ra''".
In late August, the 1995 UK
Eurovision
The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...
entrants,
Love City Groove
Love City Groove were a musical group who represented the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1995, with their self-titled song after being the runaway winner in a public vote. The song finished tenth with 76 points; and peaked at No ...
re-released their eponymous single, a No. 7 hit in 1995 which finished 10th in the contest. In this version, the rap verses were replaced and sung by Luna.
2012: ''Savage''
In December 2012, with the release of her first studio album ''Savage'', Luna evolved the jungle pop sound even co-producing.
Art Nouveau Magazine
''Art Nouveau'' Magazine is a quarterly American visual art and design and culture magazine. The online version, an-mag.com, launched in 2007. The magazine went defunct in 2011.
Issues
''Art Nouveau'' Magazine's first issue, which launched January ...
called it a tour-de-force of a pop album. This independent artist finds herself at the center of a unique group of producers: Fredro (
Wonder Girls
Wonder Girls () was a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group debuted in February 2007 with the single "Irony" and 5 members: Yeeun, Sunye, Sunmi, Hyuna and Sohee. After Hyuna's departure in July, Yubin was added into th ...
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...
,
Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. (born September 27, 1982), known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record executive. His career began in 1995, at the age of 12, when he was signed by rapper Birdman (rapper), ...
Reggie Watts
Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts (born March 23, 1972) is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinf ...
),
Peter Wade
Peter Wade is a British anthropologist who specialises in issues of Race (classification of humans), race and ethnicity in Latin America. Peter Wade is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. He has written numerous b ...
(
MNDR
Amanda Lucille Warner (born September 12, 1982), known professionally as MNDR, is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. She rose to prominence after being featured on Mark Ronson & The Business Intl's 2010 single " Bang Bang Bang" ...
,
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer Lynn Affleck (' Lopez; born July 24, 1969), also known as J.Lo, is an American singer, actress and dancer. In 1991, she began appearing as a Fly Girl dancer on the sketch comedy television series ''In Living Color'', where she rema ...
), The Hustle Standard (Rob Bailey) and more.
''Savage'' spawned another MTV Buzzworthy moment with the track "''Lay Down Your Crown''".
She has appeared as guest vocals in tracks as "''Timebombs''" with Germanys Strobe and Jashari, which has amassed over 350,000 views on YouTube and in Wunderjax's "''Dining with Kings''", released in August 2012.
Luna featured on the track "''Live Long''", a DJ SAV's & BiG KiD Xavier production on SAV's ''You Are Not The Father – EP'', released in July 2013 on Mad Decent. She's also featured on "''Ah Yeah''" with Brazil's own – The Kickstarts.
In June 2013, Luna announced that she had been working on a new EP, called ''ScandiRara'', inspired in the late 80s and 90s reggae/dancehall style, and produced by Fredro. The ''ScandiRara – EP'' was released and streamed on August 20 via
SoundCloud
SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming se ...
.
The title is inspired by the two worlds that came together to create this sound. Scandi (Scandinavian) for Swedish producer Fredro ( Namie Amuro,
Guy Sebastian
Guy Theodore Sebastian (born 26 October 1981) is an Australian singer and songwriter who was the winner of the first '' Australian Idol'' in 2003, judge on Australia's ''The X Factor'' from 2010 to 2012 and again from 2015 to 2016, and coach ...
,
B. Smyth
Brandon Smith (March 12, 1992 – November 17, 2022), known professionally as B. Smyth, was an American hip hop music, hip hop and Rhythm and blues, R&B recording artist from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Early life
Smith was born in Fort Lauderdal ...
) and Rara for Luna's Haitian background. Rara is a type of festival music in Haiti. While it's often fueled by politics, Luna's spin on the concept is inspired by her memory of the only
carnival
Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...
she attended as a child in Haiti. "I was too young to understand lyrics, but I will never forget how it made me feel, re-creating and sharing that feeling was one of my goals with ScandiRara".
The EP features one of the most prominent artists in the international
reggae
Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...
/
dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rou ...
scene. Jamaican dancehall star and
Major Lazer
Major Lazer is an American electronic dance music DJ trio, which includes record producer Diplo, and DJs Walshy Fire and Ape Drums. It originates from Kingston, Jamaica, and was founded in 2008 by Diplo and Switch, with Switch leaving after t ...
collaborator,
Mr. Vegas
Clifford Smith (born December 29th, 1974), better known as Mr. Vegas, is a Jamaican dancehall musician.
Biography
Clifford Smith was born in Kingston in 1974.Barrow, Steve & Dalton, Peter (2004) "The Rough Guide to Reggae, 3rd edn.", Rough Gu ...
, fresh off Beyonce's Standing on the Sun (Remix), was featured on 2 of the EP's 4 tracks. Famous for songs like Heads High, and most recently Bruk It Down, the MOBO award winner brought the energy Luna recalls dancing to in Brooklyn basements on days when she should've been in school.
ScandiRara is the first in a series of EPs in which Luna teams up with a few producers from the ''Savage'' album to explore specific sounds.
On September 30, it was released on Beatport a
Ming (DJ)
Aaron Albano (born January 1, 1972), better known by his stage name Ming (stylized as MING), is a Grammy Award-nominated American record producer, song writer and DJ. MING rose to prominence during the American drum and bass and turntablist move ...
and
Statik Link
Josh Andres, formally known by his stage name STATIK LNK, is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, music producer, and songwriter. His music has been classified as a combination of jazz, hip-hop, soul music, and orchestral sounds. Josh li ...
track, featuring Luna, called "Block Party".
On October 4, Luna released via Universal Records Australia, the "''Dancing in Dirt – EP" on iTunes Australia, which contains a reworked version of "''Dancing in Dirt''", and 3 remixes by J-Trick, CTFO and Lost Soul. The song was featured on the Steve Madden Magazine on October 1.“Dancing in Dirt” by MOXIIE
Marvin Priest
Marvin Cornell Elliott (born 27 October 1981), better known by his stage name Marvin Priest, is a British-born, Australian-based singer-songwriter. In November 2011 Priest released his debut studio album, ''Beats & Blips'', in Australia, which s ...