Rajae El Mouhandiz Biography & Artist Profile
Rajae means "Stronger than Hope, Less than Will" in Arabic & "King" in Indian. El Mouhandiz means "The Engineer" in Arabic.
Both Rajae's personality and her artistic path meet in the centre of three foundations: adventure, discipline and faith. At the age of four this young, Muslim woman was found by the Love we call music and they've been blossoming ever since. Four years after she twirled her first pirouette, her taste in classical music encouraged her to play the French horn and blow the soundtrack to the dramatic split between her and her family's disapproval of her art. Rajae kept pushing forward and her journeystones remind us that at the age of sixteen she was the first North African to be admitted into the Dutch Conservatory and, with founding Truthseeker Records, the first Muslim woman to start her own record label.
Rajae's art comes alive as a testament to a changing world yet remains steeped in the tonal colours of her North African heritage. She honours her Arabic musical traditions by reinventing and blending them with sounds heavily influenced by Coltrane, Khaled, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Sade, Joni Mitchell and Feist. With her album Incarnation (2006) she made her first step towards her spot in their lineage. Her second opus, Hand Of Fatima, consumes the connectivity she made while travelling to record her first album. "If you are far", one of the songs on the album, was written together with jazz icon Richard Bona, who has been one of Rajae's mentors and supporters when she had just started to focus on singing and songwriting. The rest of the album was recorded in 2008/2009 and came about with producers who worked with icons such as Barbara Streisand, Aaliyah, Ziggy Marley and 2Pac.
Rajae's work embodies the voice of a true multiculturalist who is unveiling in her commitment to speak truth to power and is steadfast in her desire to artistically manifest change. In 2005 she was named Muslim Leader of Tomorrow and in 2007 she became a member of WISE, a female Muslim Leadership Forum. Qatar's Royal family invited her to their country to sing and speak for Muslim & American leaders about the power & potential of pop culture, music and art in the Muslim world today and in relation to the rest of the world. Two years later, when revisiting Qatar, she met Malcolm Lateef Shabazz, grandson of the legendary Malcolm X and the destination for the poetic praises in the song she named after him. In December 2009 he came to Amsterdam to feature in her first official music video
Rajae continued to make a name for herself as both a musical trendsetter and a world citizen who is actively involved in various international peace and emancipation forums. In November 2011, for the third year in a row, she was the only female contemporary singer to appear on the Arts and Culture section list of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world. On this list, published by an institute in Amman, Jordan and Washington, she's in the company of artists like Yusuf Islam, Sharukh Khan, Mos Def, Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita & Dave Chapelle.
Her third album is in the making. In June 2011 Rajae locked herself in her home and recorded 25 new demos. She used social media to share her sketches and asked her followers for feedback. Soon her inbox filled with booking/media/licensing requests from Malaysia, UK, US, Egypt & Jordan. Before releasing and promoting the yet untitled Album #3, she wants to try out & perform the songs extensively before recording them live. The lyrics, English seasoned with Arabic phrases, speak poetically about love, friendship, landscapes, heartbreaks, the One, her strong Deen, Ramadan and the recent, sudden death of one of her best friends. The genre is pop, jazz, with a soupçon of her North African Roots. Part of her plan is to also start filling her online video channels with live & documentary footage of her new songs and artistic/personal journey.
But first Rajae will record a short docu-film & fly back to Hollywood where she'll record her next single, with Hollywood producer Erik Rico, one of her mentors in music. The single will be released this Fall (2012). Rajae? Ready.
Her abilities were first lauded by the overwhelmingly positive review of her debut work, 2006's Incarnation. Expanding her base as not just an artist but a collaborator, she's worked with groundbreaking producers in Amsterdam, Paris, London, Ibiza, New York, San Francisco, Texas and Los Angeles. This connectivity to other artists is showcased in her latest opus, Hand Of Fatima was recorded and produces both in Amsterdam and in Hollywood with producers who have worked with stars such as: Barbra Streisand, Aaliyah, Ziggy Marley, Tu-Pac, Wu-Tang Clan, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Snoop Dogg, Missy Elliot, Mary J. Blige, Tweet and many more.
Rajae's musical style is impossible to pigeonhole. She makes a blend of English pop, soul and jazz, with a soupcon of her roots. Somehow media-shy Rajae recorded her first official music video late 2009. The grandson of the legendary Malcolm X visited Rajae in Amsterdam to appear in the music video accompanying the song that she wrote for him. Rajae's aim is for her work to speak with the voice of a true multiculturalist who is, nonetheless, unfailing in her commitment to speak truth to power and is steadfast in her desire to use her art to transform the world.
Rajae has made a name for herself both as a musical trendsetter and as a world citizen who is actively involved in various international peace and emancipation forums. Her work has therefore not gone unnoticed. In 2006 she was named 'Muslim Leader of Tomorrow', in 2009, 2010 and recently again in december 2011 Rajae was the only female contemporary singer to appear on the Arts and Culture section of list of the world's 500 most influential Muslims – published by an institute in Jordan and Washington. Rajae expects to release a new album in 2012.
