Surviving and Thriving at Ho99o9

CANNELLE wears JACKET by SPENCER BADU ℅ EMCEE STUDIOS, DRESS is VINTAGE from STYLIST’S ARCHIVE, BIKINI by LOS ANGELES APPAREL, JEWELRY by MARTINE ALI, and SHOES are CUSTOM from STYLIST’S ARCHIVE.

CANNELLE wears BODYSUIT by NO SCENE GIRL, SKIRT by 1XBLUE, JEWELRY by OGBFF, and HEELS by ROMBAUT.

How are you doing, what have you been up to?

CANNELLE– I'm good! I'm staying at my sister’s in Paris right now. I had a show this weekend with Live From Earth. It was really fun. So yeah, I’ve just been back home, doing my shows, seeing artists.

How do you divide your time between France and the US?

I'm both in France and America, but I've been working more in America because I wanted to expand my art and see new things since I grew up in the countryside. As a countryside person, I've always wanted to see the city life, see more stuff. I’m mostly in the US now.

What’s your relationship to the internet like, especially as an artist?

Social media helped me have people who could really see me. I've always been at home. I wasn't really going outside - especially as a teenager… I had a lot of social anxiety. That's the age when people start judging you. I've always been on social media - like the early days, early Instagram days, early Tumblr days. It was a tool for me to expand my photography, my fashion, creative direction - I have a strong relationship to [it]. I was more of a social media girly, now it’s the music. I'm really grateful to have a community that can enjoy the music as well, now that I'm expanding. It's good that both can collide.

Yeah I totally agree. It used to be that mostly people who grew up in cities, or random people who were super lucky, got to pursue these creative things.

Exactly.

But you’re coming from more of a rural area…

Yeah literally, I’m from a village. There are no Black girls here, there are no alternative people whatsoever. I downloaded Instagram when I was 11 years old, that’s when I was like ‘there are people like me.’ There are people who do crazy stuff; there are people who do all the shit I’m thinking about. That’s how everything started. Content creators weren’t really a thing back then, it was just cool people.

CANNELLE wears VINTAGE DRESS from STYLIST’S ARCHIVE, BIKINI by LOS ANGELES APPAREL, JEWELRY by MARTINE ALI, and SHOES are CUSTOM from STYLIST’S ARCHIVE.

When did you start making music?

I started music for fun two years ago. I didn’t plan to have a music career. My sister and my dad are both musicians, so I always grew up around that and I played the synth when I was a kid - but I started making music for fun. I was a big fan of my friend’s production on a song he made, so I reached out to him. I was like “hey, can I hop on this?” because I really wanted to make a music video. I wanted to challenge myself - like ‘if I’m doing this music video, then I can do a song.’ If you can be the creative director, if you can be the stylist, you can also try to be the singer… so I said ‘fuck it.’ I made the song. It had really silly lyrics, just a catchy song. Now I’m listening to it and I’m like ‘this is so stupid.’ But it was fun, people enjoyed it. It was raw. I didn't take myself super seriously, even though I take my vision seriously, the lyrics themselves weren’t serious. The passion started from that first song and now it’s an everyday thing. I’m producing, song writing, I also started song writing for other artists… which is insane. I grew so much from it in only two years. I’m just super excited for the next year because I’m gonna drop a project.

It’s such a relatable thing to just want to make a music video but to have to have like something to base it off of.

Yeah, I couldn’t just do the music video… and I didn’t want to give my vision to someone else. I just had to do it myself.

Do you think visually a lot?

Yes, I do. It’s definitely helping me through the lyrics, I have visual ideas, concepts, locations. I’m always wondering how I can make a sound that fits these vibes. I think they need each other. Sometimes I can make a song and I don’t have an idea for a video, but sometimes I have a video idea and I’ll need a song for it.

Is the creative direction you’re going in extremely clear to you?

I feel like I already know the direction I want to go in, the only thing that I wanna keep on building is the stories. I don't necessarily have the biggest budget to do all the crazy stuff yet, hopefully soon, if I work enough. I definitely wanna do crazier ideas than what I've done. The world itself is just so amazing, being able to put these ideas, all these references into, you know, me… it’s super… it’s a passion.

I actually got to see you perform at the No Agency party which was really fun.

Oh yes, that was my first show ever!

Yeah, it was awesome… the whole bar was blue, and your hair was so blue.

Yeah, it was so cute. I was nervous because it was my first time performing ever. I did it, then I threw up so much after that. I was so scared. It was actually horrible.

I don’t think anyone could tell you were nervous. You were great. How do you feel about performing now? Do you view performing and music as one in the same or are they completely separate things to you?

When it comes to performing I feel like I’m always slightly nervous. It’s a good question because I just did a show, and that experience was crazy because I was so not nervous. I don’t know if it was because my friends and my family were there… it was also an early show, when it’s an earlier show I’m less anxious. But when it’s a late show and I have to wait the whole night, I’m thinking about it like “oh my god it’s 8:00pm, it’s 9:00pm, it’s 10:00pm oh my god,” but since it was 7:00pm I was like I’m gonna eat, I’m gonna do the show right away. I wasn’t nervous at all. In the moment, I’m always interacting with the crowd. I want to bring the best energy I can because I’m not the best singer in the world. I didn’t grow up a singer. I didn’t even have autotune. I was just yelling into the mic, but I love the raw energy. People were dancing, and that’s my goal, I wanna make people dance - make people have fun. I don’t want them to be like “oh, let me hear her voice and see if she can actually sing.” That’s not my point. Even I could agree, if you think I’m not good at singing, I’d be like “sure, I don’t care. That’s not what I’m here for.” Performing is really important when it comes to world building in real life. That’s how people see you and your musical and visual world. So I always ask to have a set design, lighting design. I want the world in front of people's eyes. So yeah, I think the performance is important for the music in my opinion.

CANNELLE wears BODYSUIT by NO SCENE GIRL, SKIRT by 1XBLUE, JEWELRY by OGBFF, and HEELS by ROMBAUT.

CANNELLE wears JACKET by SPENCER BADU ℅ EMCEE STUDIOS, DRESS is VINTAGE from STYLIST’S ARCHIVE, BIKINI by LOS ANGELES APPAREL, JEWELRY by MARTINE ALI, and SHOES are CUSTOM from STYLIST’S ARCHIVE.

If people aren’t seeing you live and they’re listening to your music, where would you want them to be?

That’s a really good question. If they listen to my music I think I would want them to be in the dark with a lot of lights all around… I’m literally describing my live performance. I feel like that’s the best place they could listen. Live… in the dark at a club… with a dream-state energy. You know when you’re falling asleep… and you see the stuff in your eyes.

When you’re thinking of your personal style, what are the things that make you feel correct?

First of all, I really like my baby blue hair. I feel like it's really my outfit. Not even clothes. Just my hair is my outfit. I like a cute pair of heels and I love wearing mini shorts. Just looking feminine. Before I used to be into over accessorising, which I love, but now I'm kind of maximalist in a minimalist way. I’ll have the maximalist hair, maximalist shoes - but that’s it. I love having this feminine, confident… just a bold, strong visual style, but I’m not accessorising too much anymore. Which is really funny because I do love accessories. Now I’m gonna wear a really good necklace, and I’m good. A really big, chunky necklace and that’s it.

I feel like it shows that the world you’re making creates a larger context, like you have your signature now.

Yeah yeah, because I used to put everything into my outfit and pictures and now I feel like I can breathe.

In the beginning I feel like you have to ride so hard for yourself and when it starts working you can just…

Exactly. I was trying to show a lot of things because I felt like I couldn’t speak for myself, but now I’m speaking and showing another dimension of it. I feel like my body can rest. If that makes sense.

Yeah totally, resting stylistically. If you could define the world you’re building in three words, what would they be?

I have a list of words in my notes. Glitter, cinnamon, cuz it’s my name, and that last one, I think chic. Glitter, cinnamon, chic.

What have you learned in 2025?

Moving to the US, leaving home and stuff… I don’t know if it’s too cliche, but you really have to be your own best friend. Just be your own everything. Even if it’s hard, you really need to keep on pushing. Even if people are talented, if there are amazing people who can do it for you, no one is gonna do it better than yourself. So just be your own everything. And everything’s gonna come to you naturally. You have your own rules, your own vision, you know where you’re going. At the end of the day, people will never know what you want and how you work, what you stand for, so you just have to be your own everything.

What’s been a highlight for you in 2025?

I did a performance in Paris at this exhibition place called Cinq-Quatre. It was fun because it’s such an interesting place. It brought so many cool artists. I met Frost Children and Kim Petras, who I’m really a big fan of, and Margot, who is my friend now, she's an amazing producer. The show was insane. It was my biggest crowd yet, I've never done a crowd like that before. People really showed up even though it was early, so I was happy about that. I feel very proud. If I could describe the show, it was just some fire, club, French shit. I wanna bring this club scene back, especially in France. And looking back at it, I feel like it happened that night. People were enjoying the show and nobody was on their phones - we were just jumping around. I had blue wigs for the crowd, I was throwing them. People wore them after. It was my second show in Paris. I’m always gonna show up for French people. I’m French - I’m always gonna show up for France. Always.

CANNELLE wears BODYSUIT by NO SCENE GIRL, SKIRT by 1XBLUE, JEWELRY by OGBFF, and HEELS by ROMBAUT.

What are you looking forward to?

I'm excited about the mixtape that I'm dropping next year. This is gonna be my first body of work ever, so I'm just really looking forward to it because I plan to put out a good amount of songs. I have a rule, and everybody’s got their own opinion, but I didn't really wanna do an EP because I have too many songs. Even if they’re not all perfect, I just want to throw in everything, not overthink it. I want to have over 10 songs… not a five, six track EP. I’m still building my sound, I’m still building my audience. I don’t have to be at the top or whatever, these are the moments where I’m allowed to fail. You know?

For sure. It’s definitely real of you to not try and hyper-curate everything like that. In terms of being involved in club culture, it requires this rawness.

I think music is raw, period. In any city or country, people are here to live in the moment and forget about their problems. And you just wanna make memories. In ten years people are gonna look back and say “do you remember these parties?” I want to make good memories. Memories are all that matter.

You make really good music, but you also think in so many other ways. Are there any other long-term pursuits that you're curious about?

If I'm being honest, I'm curious about everything. I wanna touch everything. But my main goal is definitely to pursue this music career. I wanna drop as many projects as I can, and do as many shows as I can. I want to go on tour. That’s my dream. After the music, I love fashion. If I have the opportunity to make clothes or design stuff, I’d love that. I designed for a jewelry brand. I did a little collection for them, so that was one of my first things as a designer, which is fun but I definitely want to tap into something more serious for my own thing. I want to connect the visual, the music, and the fashion. It has to be a whole thing. I don’t want to just stick to the music, but music came to me, and fashion will come to me. In the music world, I’d love to write for artists, even produce for artists. I started producing, I'm not the best producer yet, but give me five years. I really want to put my vision into other artists. That would be the dream. For real.