Black girl magic: Halifax’s Zamani Folade ‘was born to do this’

For 22-year-old Zamani Folade, the magic of the black girl weaves through her songs and shines in her eyes.

“What it means to embody black girl magic is to own who I am, to be true to myself and to be proud of that heritage, that lineage,” she said in a recent interview at her Clayton Park home.

“You can feel so much more joy in your life when you can let your guard down, drop your barriers, and fully embody who you are.”

Laughing, she said that black girl magic is the “secret sauce the black girls have.”

“My interpretation of Black Girl magic is showing up and being authentic in your Blackness, because we often feel like we have to tone down who we are, code-switch as we call it, when we’re in circles where we’re outnumbered.”

Wise well past her years, the singer, songwriter, producer, and multiple ECMA winner (and architecture student) didn’t always feel so confident.

In high school, when she hung out with a white group of friends, she felt different.

“Something just feels like I don’t fit in here,” she said.

“I also just realized that I need to love myself and connect with my heritage and roots. That is a way to counter that feeling of being outside.”

So she wrote a song about it called Outside.

“Writing that song helped me pour those feelings out,” she said.

The song is about what it’s like to be marginalized for many different reasons, whether it’s race, gender or sexual orientation, she said.

“That song talks about what it’s like to feel on the periphery. It’s one of my favorites because I think it can comfort people that they’re not alone and it’s quite catchy I think.”

She will get through on her own

“It actually all started before I was born.”

Her father, Harvi Millar, is a jazz guitarist and her mother, Delvina Bernard, was in the acapella quartet Four the Moment with other family members.

“They always played music in the house and I went to sleep with jazz music and on the way to school we played classical music because our mom always said it was good for our brain and focus.”

Singing past her fear

Folade describes herself as shy and nervous, but she sang in church and at age 14 performed at the Halifax Jazz Fest with her family.

“After it was over, I realized OK, I could do this. It’s not as scary as it seems.”

She said that with the encouragement of the black student counselor at her high school who pushed her to sing at talent shows, her confidence grew and she learned how to “sing over the fear.”

She was constantly asked to sing Lift Every Voice and O Canada at events, and she felt comfortable as a solo singer, without her family. Folade played at festivals at home and abroad and started making contacts in the local music scene.

She wrote songs, produced them in the family’s backyard music studio, and released her EP Outside. Prices started pouring in.

Folade has won several African Nova Scotian Music Association awards, as well as the 2019 Atlantic International Film Festival (FIN) Award for the best original Atlantic score of a 10-minute short film called Cockblock.

Then this spring she won – for the third year in a row — the East Coast Music Award for Afro-Canadian Artist of the Year.

“That was such a blessing and such a surprise. I feel very happy and excited to receive that ECMA this year,” she said.

“But I think some of the biggest successes aren’t necessarily prizes, like some of the trips I have to do with my music, like going to Rotterdam with the New School Rules Festival and singing in Boston at the Boston Tree Lighting.”

‘Born to do this’

Folade’s mother said that her youngest daughter uses her gifts to bring joy to people’s lives.

“I’m mesmerized by her and I think I always have been,” Bernard said. “From the time she was little I could see the joy and energy in her and she would always perform and dance around the house.”

It just seems right that Folade is sharing her music with the world.

“She was born to do this, I really believe that,” said Bernard.

She could take a hit, of course, Bernard said, but she doesn’t have to to make a positive difference in the world.

“I know she has so many options for her, but I hope she never settles and puts her music down because it’s so much of who she is as a person.”

Mixing music and architecture and not having to choose

Art and music share equal space in Folade’s heart.

“I love visual art as much as I love music, it’s almost a personal thing. not so much something I do in public like music.

Folade has just finished her sophomore year studying architecture at Dalhousie University and will be pursuing her master’s degree next year after graduating.

Architecture “is a creative form, but it is also something that serves the public…it is truly an art form. It’s so cool.”

And she said there’s no reason for her to have to choose one over the other.

“I often get the question: is it music or is it architecture? But I think there can be different seasons in life where one might take center stage over the other, but the two can always coexist.”

‘I have something to give’

Her music doesn’t fit into any category, rather it’s a mix of R&B, soul, pop and urban jazz, but there aren’t many sources for this kind of music on the East Coast. She said she often has to “pull my coin” to find people in Toronto or Montreal who can mix the sound she’s looking for.

But Folade said the biggest challenges of her career so far are the internal struggles of not feeling good enough or not fitting in.

“Lots of gigs, especially when you’re the only black girl on the bill, diversifying the music scene, but… it can feel weird,” she said.

“You just have to shut up and remind yourself that no, I’m here for a reason. I belong here. I have something to offer, I have something to give.”