For years, British-Mauritian singer-songwriter Lavaud has been quietly assembling considered one of up to date music’s most compelling catalogues.
Shifting seamlessly between Afrobeats, R&B and pop, she has repeatedly pushed boundaries, collaborated throughout continents, and refined a genre-blurring sound outlined by fluidity and intent. Alongside this, she has quietly cultivated a worldwide viewers drawn to her smooth visible identification, assured presence, and instinctive capability to face out with out overstating it. Her newest single, “Pushin’”, sharpens that trajectory into one thing extra outlined: a second of inventive readability quite than simply continued evolution.
Launched in the present day (June nineteenth), “Pushin’” finds Lavaud leaning right into a brilliant, Afro-pop-inflected sound formed by internationally revered Nigerian document producer, Kel-P. The manufacturing is ethereal however exact, pairing rhythmic heat with polished pop construction in a manner that feels assured quite than experimental. What emerges is a document that indicators route as a lot as fashion – an artist sounding more and more sure of how her voice suits inside the house she’s carving out.
At its core, the monitor is about transformation, however not within the summary sense of change for its personal sake. As an alternative, Lavaud frames development as one thing energetic and ongoing, folding resilience and self-definition right into a tune designed to maneuver as simply by intimate late-night rendezvous because it does throughout dance-floors. The writing doesn’t separate introspection from vitality; it lets each coexist, giving the monitor its quiet stress.
That stability defines the document’s attraction. “Pushin’” by no means feels overworked or overly self-conscious, as an alternative touchdown with a way of ease that comes from understanding precisely what it needs to be. In doing so, it captures a inventive turning level – much less about reinvention than refinement, and extra about selecting conviction over hesitation.
“Through the years I’ve discovered that stress can both break you or form you. For me, it grew to become one thing that refined me. This tune is my manner of turning that have into one thing joyful and liberating.” — Lavaud
To accompany the discharge of the monitor, Lavaud has additionally unveiled a high-quality visualiser shot in Thailand, filmed completely on an iPhone.
Set in opposition to a backdrop of palm-lined roads and sweeping Thai landscapes, the video captures her in movement and comfy – driving pillion on a bike by sun-drenched surroundings earlier than getting into extra intimate efficiency moments.
The result’s a stripped-back, but cinematic piece, that leans into spontaneity, pairing the tune’s free-flowing vitality with visuals that really feel quick, unforced, and travel-worn in the most effective sense.
Lavaud – Pushin’ (Visualizer)
In an period the place British artists are more and more shaping the worldwide dialog round pop and Afrobeats, Lavaud feels nicely positioned to be an integral a part of that subsequent wave. She brings collectively aesthetic intuition, robust songwriting, cultural fluency and, crucially, a way of authenticity that anchors all of it. Fairly than chasing prevailing traits, she appears to be refining an area that already feels distinctly her personal.
If “Pushin’” is any indication of what’s to come back from her forthcoming venture, it reads much less as a standalone single and extra as a transparent assertion of intent – one which indicators the place she sits inside a quickly increasing international dialogue. And maybe that’s the purpose: whereas the trade typically appears to be like outward for the subsequent genre-fluid pop determine, one might have been growing in plain sight all alongside.
“Pushin’” is offered now by way of all main streaming platforms.
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