Emerging in the London space, with years in Europe segueing a Rwanda upbringing, rising talent Saràh Phenom brings culture and diversity to her intoxicating approach. From influences in her grandfather’s love of Latin and classical music to pop icons across epochs—from Rihanna to Tina Turner—the artist brings a fresh and exciting approach to her work.

Phenom has recently unveiled her debut EP, “girl”, a six-track work as eclectic as it is entertaining. Plucking from R&B, Afrobeat rhythms and electronic sub-styles like DnB, the project bridges global boundaries and is rooted in dynamic, highly listenable pop. Documenting her experiences of coming of age and womanhood, Phenom emerges as a captivating voice with lots to say, and plenty of room to grow.

Wonderland caught up with her, taking her move to London, and the making and meaning of her debut EP.

Listen to “girl”…

Read the interview…

Hey Saràh! How are you? How’s your year been?
Hi hi! My year has been super hectic but I feel extremely blessed as I got to do everything I wanted out of this year! 
 
Talk us through your musical education? What music were you around growing up? Who inspired you to first begin making music?
I actually grew up with my grandparents and my mother that were big music consumers. My mom owned a record store well before I was born and my grand pa made it his personal mission to implement music Sundays into the house, so we would go through his CDs, he’d give me the entire background of the artists would tell me which trips he’s discovered them on, how to dance to it (I learned as I was standing on his toes) etc. And it always made my love for the music stronger as I would associate them with a journey I felt invested in.
 
In school, I went on to do modern dance classes in extracurricular activities and would participate at every talent shows with my sister. I would consume trace TV & MTV in amounts I had no business doing at that age, but deep down I knew that’s what I wanted to become; an entertainer, a musician, a singer, a dancer.
 
You grew up in Rwanda and then proceeded to move to Europe. How did that impact your musical and personal outlook? 
It opened up doors for me because I was closer to a place that had a bigger infrastructure, when it came to what I knew I wanted to do deep down! But I quickly figured out Europe wasn’t the place I wanted to settle, as making music in English in a francophone country wasn’t going to go & the mentality was also just different. You couldn’t find people that were into the same things I was into, as I was looking at the English & American “industry” as they were operating at a higher level. The resilience I had from growing up in a country that had just freshly came out of a war, a genocide to be more exact + having the musical knowledge & ear that I had felt like I had tools that many didn’t have! 

It’s an experience that’s tough to explain, it just creates a skin so thick it’s almost impossible to crack, and my academic level was way harder & music wise I was influenced and informed about so many different sounds I had the advantage of being able to morph/blend & explore various different genres. 

 
What’s three things you love about London, and one thing you don’t enjoy?
The multicultural aspect of it, the community aspect, connectivity with creatives is amazing.

London feels like old money, I’d even say wealth. 
 
Things I hate; The weather. 
 
Sonically you refuse to be restricted to one sound. How have you worked on merging sonic characteristics together? How would you describe the essence of your sound?
 I think I like the freeing aspect of it . I’m quite young and I’m trying to figure myself out as a girl, as a woman & as a musician, and as long as I can create I want to be able to be free to express myself without thinking about societal norms of sonic conformity in order to put me on a list ! I just make stuff I feel drawn to, my vocals being the red thread! I’m a Young black-African woman that grew up in a multicultural environment & gets her inspiration from her surroundings. I think I would describe it being a blend of pop, hip hop and R&B .

Your music videos are always fabulous! How do you work on bringing your music to life visually? 
Thank you so much!!! Honestly I always just have outrageous ideas that would cost an arm and a leg to produce. My manager introduced me to a director called Taran that is basically the executor and the person that manages my expectations & finds solutions to my delusions while bringing the weeks worth of back and forgets to life! 

I do a lot of visual research! Everything always starts with Pinterest boards, I always talk about it with my friends and kind of ask myself how I can tell the song’s story while blending my interests which are music, art & fashion! & what would 10 year old me want to see from a black pop star!

Fashion is a key facet to your artistry and identity. Where does your love for it stem for, and how does it impact you on a day-to-day basis?
My grandmother. She is my fashion icon. I grew up with my grandparents and spent a lot of time at theirs and just in their feet, and my grand mother was a seamstress. An incredible one. Before I moved to Europe I had 0 knowledge of brands & what costed how much etc.. but through hanging out in my grand mas office and looking at my moms old pictures I fell in love with shapes, cuts, fits, silhouettes, materials, my grand ma thought me all of it! She’d tell me stories of how when she was younger she worked for a big couture house in Paris! Her stories would make me travel and there you had little me completely immersed into the world, believing she could too wear these beautiful garments! 

If you ask anyone In my school they’ll tell you it’s always been a big part of who I was! I would steal my grand ma’s bags and use them as school bags (after moving to Europe I understood why she wasn’t happy as they were Chanel). But yeah fashion is a love I acquired by hanging out with the women in my family, it’s something I love right under music and will impact my life forever! Even before I was brave enough to say I wanted to pursue music full time, expressing myself through fashion and having a good sense for it has always gotten me through the door and kept the food on my table!  
 
Congratulations on your debut EP, “girl”! How are you feeing about the release?
I’m super ecstatic about it, I mean putting yourself and all your time into something and seeing it come to fruition is the best feeling in the world!  

Talk us through the creative process that went into making the project? 
Ouh! I had just come out here, was very much crashing my cousin’s couch, I left everything behind and decided to start from scratch!  I started getting introduced to a bunch of people, producers into the afrobeat space & the pop space. It felt surreal. Everybody had worked with all my favourite people , i finally felt like I was getting somewhere!   I made it a mission to simply talk about how I felt every single time I was recording.. I knew it was a transitional period and it wasn’t going to be in it forever and that I was going to require a lot of growing as I wanted to talk about every single aspects/phases of it!
 
What sonically inspired the EP?
My love for pop and electronic music, Raye, reggae, Gwen Stefani, Kanye west, Banks and teen pop movies, Beyoncé & Rihanna.

What are you touching on thematically across the work?
Being young, sexy & free, growth, reaching your full potential, self worth & it being okay to go through different phases, & finding love. 
 
After “girl”, what’s to come? What are your long term plans?
More music! More things I want to explore, more ideas, more creativity, more collaborations. I want to empty out my creative brain, I feel like a have a story to tell and I feel like I can be one of the people that show the world what a woman raised in a previously third world country can offer the world. I just want to shift how black women are categorised into music and give them more wiggle room in the space. We come from different backgrounds, have so many influences, and we’re soo talented & multifaceted and we don’t get to showcase that!