Mathieu Saïkaly is a bilingual songwriter and performer based just outside Paris, with a voice that might remind you a bit of Jeff Buckley. His impressive dynamic range and subtle vibrato will immediately pull you in to an emotional world of layered vocal harmonies and ethereal sonic atmosphere.
At the early age of 17 Mathieu started his own Youtube channel. Armed with a microphone taped to a camera tripod and an old cassette camcorder, he began with covers of his favorite songs, and eventually gained the confidence to start writing his own. Soon confronted with the question of what to do next, his friends advised him to audition for Nouvelle Star—France's answer to American Idol. Without a second thought he quickly signed up and won the 2014 season, singing his greatest inspiration for the final episode, Elliott Smith's "Angeles."
He was soon snatched up by a major label and released his first album the next year: "A Million Particles" with standout single "From Glass To Ice" reaching more than 4 million streams on Spotify. At 24 he chose the independent route for making his second album and created his own label. "Quatre Murs Blancs"—which translates as 'four white walls'—is an intimate album that showcases Saïkaly's range as a bilingual artist as well as an impressive stylistic maturity as he settles in to an artistic persona at the intersection of electronic, soul, and folk-inspired chamber pop. His fluid and resonant vocal presence, along with a natural instinct for beautiful melodies, work in tandem to deliver an engaging pop experience that is unique to French mainstream music.
