Each week, OOR Studio reaches out to various artists, musicians, and those with all-around good taste to create a playlist for us to play within our office. Of course, we share the best ones with you!
WEEKEND PLAYLIST PT. 45: TAQWA BINT ALI
vor 3 years
This week’s playlist comes from the Tunisian-French model, creative director and activist TAQWA BINT ALI. We had the pleasure to talk to her about her relationship with music. Along with her fifteen favorite songs, she shared photos with us, which have been shot by ELIE ZINSOU while her makeup was done by MICHELLE. The looks were from Prada and Mugler. Go and check all of them out, it’s absolutely worth it!
What was your first favorite song? Do you remember the moment that music gave you chills of excitement for the first time?
Definitely Pyramids by Frank Ocean , I used to not like long songs, I was probably listening to the album on youtube while doing something else and then I stopped when I heard the second part of the song, I was like “what’s happening”. The best 9 minutes and 53 seconds of my ears.
Within the rainy October weather, I want to remember warmer days. What does an ideal summer day for you look like and which song would be the soundtrack?
I like to spend my summer in my hometown so I would say that the ideal summer day would be to wake up in my village in the south of Tunisia, have figs and pomegranate from my grandfather’s garden for breakfast, go to the beach with my friends in the afternoon and spend the evening with my family around a mint tea. When we go to the beach there are always two moods i think ; on the way where we are all excited so I would say Shay – Liquide ft. Niska and on the way back we are all so calm in the car nobody talks. We are too tired from the beach and we just watch the sunset so I would say Nujabes – Shiki No uta fits this mood .
Is there a specific song or genre that will always pull you out of a bad mood or that will always inspire you?
Any song by SZA, Jhene Aiko or Lauryn Hill. They are so strong in describing feelings or situations that you have experienced. Or not, that’s what’s strong, sometimes I sing their songs with all this energy in the lyrics when I don’t relate at all haha they manage to make us feel their experiences and at the same time make us feel better.
Who is your favorite musician? And why do you admire that person’s artistry?
I don’t really have a favorite artist, it changes with the time, the moment, and the mood.
At the moment, I like KAI a lot, even though I tend to listen to a lot of RNB, I don’t really have a favorite genre and I don’t have this language barrier at all, I enjoy listening to Japanese rock, like Indian and Arabic ballads or US rap etc. I think that’s why I like KAI, he is very versatile and I like to find different genres in an album, even more, when the artist builds a whole visual and artistic universe for each song.
Which part does music play in your everyday life?
As a creative director it takes an important place in my work, it helps me to tell stories and to put a sound on emotions, on the message that I want to pass. It also helps me to concentrate and focus on my work, when we do pop-up with @zarafetgalleries we always prepare a playlist, the same for all our shoots with my creative collective @jdidclub we finally decided to put our playlist online and update it every month haha. But I think at the end of the day it’s mostly a way to escape, I put my headphones on the bus, I put my playlist on shuffle and I imagine scenarios haha actually it’s often related to my work and often it gives me new ideas that end up happening.
Photos Courtsey of Elie Zinsou & Taqwa Bint Ali
