DOMANIQUE GRANT TAKES A STAND TO AMPLIFY AUTHENTICITY ON AIRBRUSH
WATCH AIRBRUSH | LISTEN TO AIRBRUSH
"They want to Photoshop me / Make me the American Dream” – Domanique Grant
| Toronto, ON – August 26, 2021 – Toronto soul-pop singer, songwriter, producer and director, Domanique Grant, has been making waves with her signature sound and style. Last year, Domanique’s craft made global headlines through Till We See The Sun, her stunning, uplifting track that spread joy at the height of the first pandemic lockdown. As cities emerge from hibernation mode, ready to move into the light, Domanique shines one on another truth with her new song, Airbrush: a bold, tell-it-like-it-is multi-layered take on how colourism, shadeism, gender norms, narcissism, and self-esteem unfold and impact digital culture. The bold jam arrives today alongside a vibrant video that brings these themes to the forefrontwith a fun, creative twist. Listen to Airbrush here and watch the video here. “The song was written after I experienced being trolled online for my body being too curvy, my hair being too bright and my skin being too dark. I had people who were accusing me of photo shopping my photos because they thought my body was too ‘curvy’, and then on the other side, I had people telling me that I wasn’t enough,” Domanique says. Co-produced with Jarrel The Young, one-half of Young Wolf Hatchlings (who has worked with The Weeknd and METZ), Domanique flows with a catchy percussive beat singing “they want to edit, edit me,” challenging and unpacking notions of online ideals around beauty. The video was co-directed by Domanique Grant and Alim Z Sabir, with choreography by Leon Blackwood (Arianna Grande, Britney Spears), featuring an all BIPOC cast and set of creatives, in partnership with RBC. “Airbrush is a song that takes Instagram, TikTok and YouTube culture, and turns it into satire. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t wear wigs or makeup, what I’m saying is that if you’re trying to go viral and your idea of fame is not being yourself — airbrushing, Black fishing or filtering yourself — that’s when you really need to re-evaluate. I want the song to remind people to be authentic.” Domanique partnered with Ensemble and RBCxMusic for the project and launched an intimate in-studio preview of the track you can check out here. Learn more about Domanique’s incredible career to date below and stay tuned as she continues to blaze her path with more music on the way. |
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www.domaniquegrant.com
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About Domanique Grant
Toronto soul-pop singer, songwriter, producer and director Domanique Grant is working on her next EP (In partnership with RBC), for which she opens up some tough conversations — of worthiness, forgiveness, honesty, notions of beauty, colourism and Internet culture.
This new chapter already contains achievements that include a beautiful start-of-the-pandemic song “Till We See The Sun” that went viral and ended up on over 10 international news networks at the start of 2020, a TEDx Talk, prominent sync placements with L’Oreal Paris and Unilever, performing at the closing ceremony of the Toronto Pan American Games; for then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the 50th anniversary of Youth Employment Services (YES); for a women’s empowerment and gender equality event in Canada for the United Nations (UN); in front of 40,000 people in Uganda for World AIDS Day, as well as earning a coveted top 20 spot in the SOCAN Foundation’s TD Incubator for Creative Entrepreneurship.
During the pandemic, she made some hard personal decisions and realizations. She stepped up — not for anyone else but herself. “I am learning who I want to be as this version of Domanique, stepping into my crown, writing music that’s authentic to me, exploring who I am as a woman of colour in music and what that means. I’m not afraid to say what I want to say; I used to be scared of that narrative.”
The first single/video, the electro-snap pop song “Airbrush” — co-produced with Jarrel The Young, one-half of Young Wolf Hatchlings (The Weeknd, METZ) — is a bold, tell-it-like-it-is multi-layered lyric on shadeism/colourism, gender norms, narcissism and self-esteem in the digital culture. “They want to Photoshop me / Make me the American Dream,” she sings.
“‘Airbrush’ is a song that takes Instagram, TikTok and YouTube culture, and turns it into satire. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t wear wigs or makeup, what I’m saying is that if you’re trying to go viral and your idea of fame is not being yourself — airbrushing, blackfishing or filtering yourself — that’s when you really need to stop and be free and appreciate yourself. I want the song to remind people to be authentic.”
You would never guess she had these feelings based on her considerable accomplishments in her youth. As a kid, her story was included in a Dora Award-winning theatre production Grace Project Sick by famed playwright Judith Thompson and by 17 she was writing scripts and music for local theatre companies herself. She also became a motivational speaker who toured Uganda and Canada and by 20 had lived in East Africa and South America.
After settling back in Toronto to pursue music, she released her debut EP, Playhouse, in 2018, which opened many doors.
When covid hit in March 2020, in a span of 24 hours, all of her shows got cancelled, including a European tour and major dates in Canada. Miserable, the normally bubbly personality was convinced by her mom to snap out of it and go write a song! “Till We See The Sun” flowed out in two hours. Marc Koecher produced it, and arts organization Jamii Esplanade asked her to sing it on their newly-built cart “to help improve mental health for our neighbours in social isolation.” The video was then posted to YouTube (Today, it’s still emotional (you might shed some tears watching the video).
“I woke up the next day and a lot of things changed,” Domanique says. “I had coverage on 10 international news networks; the song was played everywhere from Virgin to Kiss, and brands started reaching out. I was featured in campaigns by L’Oréal Paris and Unilever, and RBC reached out and said they wanted to help me make an album. That led to one of my dreams, as close as I have come to this day to the Grammys —I appeared in an ad campaign for emerging Canadian artists during the commercial break.
“So that began my new journey. We can be disempowered by hard moments, but just keep pushing through and leaning on our art.”
As she readies her next EP, a new song and video will be released every month or two, featuring a self-directed video, until they all are produced into a short film.