Today we’d like to introduce you to Angélique Cinélu.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Angélique. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Real talk.., I started as a hair model and worked my way up, wig by wig. I was living in Manhattan, doing a lot of commercials and a little bit of acting. I really wanted to make the transition and give acting a real try. Simultaneously, I had started to write songs seriously. I had gotten my first placements on a couple of oversees artists just a month before I moved to Los Angeles. Though my primary reason for moving west was to act, I found that the music scene, particularly for writers and producers, was really exploding. For years, I was going in between auditions and studio sessions, studio sessions and auditions. I should have been exhausted, but I felt doing both music and acting kept me balanced and inspired. Ultimately, I believe that’s the reason why writing songs for tv and film was such a good fit for me. Before I specifically started writing for tv and film, I already had songs in the movies ‘Ride Along’ and ‘About Last Night’. The song in ‘About Last Night’ was written with John Legend, originally for his album. Though the song never made it on his album, it was a stand out and helped to create a great working rapport with John and I in the tv/film space.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Remember the part where I moved here for acting and ended up a songwriter..? There has been a lot of disappointments, a lot of almost, a lot of six rounds of callbacks only to lose the part to a known actress who never had to audition in the first place. I have found that this town and the business of entertainment lends itself to the letdowns and makes it difficult for us to see the wins and the progress. I spent so much time focusing on what parts I didn’t get and what songs didn’t get placed that I was forgetting to celebrate or even acknowledge all of the things I had accomplished. It took a friend of mine bringing a bottle of champagne for me to her own session to celebrate my song in La La Land. It didn’t even occur to me that it was a big deal.
We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am a Grammy award-winning singer/songwriter and sometimes actress. I also produce as well as vocal produce. Generally, people would put me under the umbrella of a songwriter, but so much goes into a song from start to finish and I am involved in all of it. I use a lot of what I have learned in acting to not only shape the stories of the songs I write, but also to give them a voice. I believe songs all start as feelings that we express through a story. In order to convey those feelings you have to use music, melody, lyrics and vocal performance, and that is what I love doing.
Do you feel like there was something about the experiences you had growing up that played an outsized role in setting you up for success later in life?
Music has always been my first love. I learned how to feel music from my mother. She was a professional dancer at one point. No matter what music she listened to she always had an effortless fluidity that came straight from source. I learned about excellence, execution and competition from seeing my father play on the biggest stages with some of the world’s biggest artists, from Miles Davis to Sting. From both of them, I learned that truth and honesty are always rewarded in life and in art.
Contact Info:
- Email: cinelumusic@gmail.com
- Instagram: @mscinelu
- Twitter: @mscinelu
Image Credit:
Cynthia Chin; Emanate Beam
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