Released on October 15, Beauvoir’s rendition of the iconic Steve Winwood hit reteams her with producers Chico Boyer and CheFF Lonchér (KAMOKEN) for the first single from her forthcoming new album
Music and mission have always been tightly intertwined for Malou Beauvoir. On her last album, 2018’s Spiritwalker, the Haitian-American singer-songwriter at once celebrated the Vaudou spirits that embody and enrich the culture of Haiti and conveyed their message of peace and awakening to the world at large.
Beauvoir stunningly carries forward that concept with her transformative rendition of Steve Winwood’s classic “Higher Love,” the first single from her forthcoming new album. The song, co-written by Winwood and Will Jennings, was a #1 hit in 1986, but feels just as relevant today – if not more so. The song, which Jennings has termed “a modern hymn,” speaks to a strong spiritual purpose that emanates from deep within the human heart. In the lyrics Beauvoir discovered a message of hope and empowerment at a time of crisis in America and around the world.
“One evening,” Beauvoir recalls, “I turned on the radio and heard ‘Higher Love,’ and I realized that I wanted more than anything to do my part to help remind people that we need to look higher and deeper within ourselves. We must strive to protect the values and ideals that America once represented. We need to nourish our minds and hearts with hope and realize that we can come back from this difficult period, but only if we are ALL willing to join hands and work to make our dreams a reality.”
There is certainly a yearning for change embedded in Winwood and Jennings’ original lyrics: “Things look so bad everywhere / In this whole world, what is fair? / We walk blind and we try to see / Falling behind in what could be.” Beauvoir set out to turn those aspirational words towards a specific and vital purpose: urging her fellow Caribbean-Americans to vote in this November’s presidential election and to do her part in drawing awareness to the turmoil into which we’ve fallen so precipitously.
“As I sat through confinement in New York during the COVID pandemic, I listened to the politicians’ responses and witnessed the impact on all communities,” she explains. “I watched as Trump’s messages strove to divide Americans and fuel the flames for racism in the U.S. and internationally, blindly blaming the Chinese and other countries for his mismanagement of the crisis. I realized then that greed, bullying and money had become the main political platform in America, and that the only way to hope to change this broken system was to get every last person out there voting.”
When she heard “Higher Love” on the radio, she realized that Winwood and Jennings had already expressed her own thoughts in an ideal form. She decided to record the song with her own Caribbean vibe, and found the perfect partners in her long-term collaborators, the production team KAMOKEN, aka Chico Boyer and CheFF Lonchér. The duo, both of whom share Beauvoir’s Haitian roots, are dedicated activists and community leaders as well as being in-demand producers, multi-instrumentalists and studio owners. With them on board, Beauvoir knew that the results would not only be musically thrilling but would retain her keen sense of mission.
“With their experience and commitment to the Caribbean and Latin community, together we created a new version of “Higher Love” reflecting what we each thought would touch voters the most,” Beauvoir says. “I wanted to highlight the lyrics and soul of the song, CheFF wanted to keep it fresh and light, and Chico wanted the Haitian rhythms.” The song also features special guest vocals by the talented Laissa Boyer and Haitian superstar ,Alan Cavé and keyboards by Yayoi Ikawa.
A citizen of the world, Malou Beauvoir has lived in the US, Europe and Haiti, and traveled extensively; each culture she has encountered has impacted and informed her in different ways, reinforcing her openness to different perspectives and forms of spirituality. That has been vibrantly reflected in the diversity and eclecticism of her recording career, which has included four gorgeous and wide-ranging jazz albums and the world music-inspired Spiritwalker, on which she combined treasured folk songs written for the spirits with original compositions inspired by contemporary social and political issues as well as the ancient spirits of Haiti. She is also a gifted actress, with credits including Stephen Frears’ Oscar-winning The Queen, Élisabeth Rappeneau’s Paul et ses Femmes, Christian Carion’s Farewell and the hit TV series Perception.
KAMOKEN brings together Haitian-born Chico Boyer, who emigrated to the States in 1991 along with his influential band Foula following the 1991 coup d’etat in Haiti; and CheFF Lonchér, born in Brooklyn to Haitian parents, founder of the record label Lonch M.Y.L.S. (Make Your Life Successful). As performers and producers the two have worked in a staggering variety of settings, from opening for the Rolling Stones to collaborating with Haitian-rooted artists like Beauvoir, James Germain, Ayiiti Coles and Paul Beaubrun.
The name KAMOKEN translates to “The Wild Maroon” or “invincible one” – which Beauvoir sees as a perfect summation of the spirit that she strives to embody with her stunning new version of the iconic “Higher Love.” As she says, “I believe in America and in the goodness and resilience of our people. All of us are “KAMOKEN” when we get out and make our VOTE count!”
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