“Sudan is the reason I feel like I am as musical as I am or I was so inclined to poetry. I feel like Sudan is a country with a lot of tragedy and emotions and feelings and a really, really deep cultural history.” - Abdala Elamin aka Elmiene
Elmiene’s soulful voice resonated with people before he’d written his first song. A friend used to record him singing in his backyard until he woke up one day and found thathis rendition of D’Angelos’ “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” had gone viral.
Next, the British Sudanese poet and singer from Oxford found himself in a studio, figuring out how to turn his poetry into music. “Golden” was one of his first attempts following a classic song structure. It was inspired by his grandfather’s stories of the golden years of Sudan.
“I was really insecure about ‘Golden,’” Elmiene says in an interview with OkayAfrica. “I had it in my head that it wasn’t good enough.” When he was introduced to a producer interested in the four songs he had written, he played “Golden” last, considering leaving it out altogether. Right then, DJ Benji B, music director at Louis Vuitton, stepped into the room.Benji B heard “Golden,” got up, and said, “This is nuts.” He shared the song with Virgil Abloh, who decided to feature it in his Miami Louis Vuitton show one day before he passed away. Approving the song was one of the last messages B and Abloh shared.
“Through its themes of nostalgia and looking at the past, ‘Golden’ ended up becoming this perfect tribute to his life that it wasn’t [originally] intended to be,” says Elmiene. “And it changed everything. From then on, I had a name.”
Three EPs, a Tiny Desk Concert, and a nomination for BRIT’s Rising Star Award later, “Golden” closes out Elmiene’s latest EP, For The Deported, marking a full circle moment on his journey.For The Deported is Elmiene’s love letter to Sudan, his parent's home he grew up visiting every year. When war broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Janjaweed, or Rapid Support Forces, in April 2023, Elmiene’s grandmother, aunts and cousins fled across the desert to Egypt alongside over a million others.
Families in the diaspora held their breath, hoping their loved ones would arrive safely on coaches whose limited seats cost exorbitant amounts; the internet blacked out frequently.
“It was such a weird time to keep living your life as normal,” remembers Elmiene. “The thought that kept coming into my head was, ‘The only difference between me and [my cousins] is that my mum happened to go to Europe and [theirs] had a life in Sudan that she wanted to stay with.’ One decision changed everything. It was a really hard time.”
For The Deported was produced by Dan Wilson, Jim-E Stack, Buddy Ross, Jamie Woon and John Fellner, and follows Elmiene’s recent project Anyway I Can.
Photo by Lewis Khan.
The songs on the EP had been in the making for years; only the opening track, “The Deported,” specifically speaks to this most recent event in decades of crises. Elmiene sings, “What do I do / When all that I have known is nearly lost / The cupboard and the door have blown to dust / A home is for the sleeping / Keeps me up nightly,” over simple piano chords.
Elmiene's love for soul music is intertwined with his Sudanese upbringing, which includes a family lineage of a poet grandmother and musician grandfather on his maternal side and a poet paternal grandfather.
“I feel like it's in the blood somewhere,” he says. “There's something in the DNA where it all just kind of makes sense. My grandma raised me to be very introspective, and that's the crux of any poet: to understand yourself better than most people understand themselves. She taught me how to look inwards and be able to speak my mind eloquently.”
“A liar I can be / In this world that I wish we had / I’m so tired of grief / Now my heart is a weight unmatched / Saving nothing / When the story ends / We’re running for cover” - "Open Light"
Photo by Lewis Khan.
While “Open Light” is the EP’s focus track, Elmiene’s two favorite songs are “Grave News” and “Promise Me a Rose.” He wrote “Grave News” in one hour when his emotions and creativity aligned and poured out inspiration that translated his poetry into music. “Hold the words for the ear can’t hear enough / Fade the ink so I misread there’s love in wrong / Tell me lies I can trust / Make this life null to us / Grave news from a dove,” he sings in the song.
“Sometimes it's hard to do that because it's a different writing style,” Elmiene says. “You've got to be more direct with your meanings and message. But ‘Grave News’ has the depth of a poem, and the music is beautiful; it all just fits.”
“Promise Me a Rose” surprised Elmiene when it unintentionally turned out to be a country song, singing, “Hope can come in different ways / I don’t need to kiss or make love / As long as I exist in those tears.” Unlike “Grave News,” he put this track aside for six months after recording the vocals, eventually asking American musician and producer Dan Wilson to add drums and keys, making the song come together on the first try. “You always have to trust your instinct when something feels good,” he says.
Elmiene’s career is progressing so rapidly that he’s yet to process his nominations and sold-out shows. Ultimately, he dreams of leaving a legacy by imprinting his sound on soul music and culture.
“Growing up, you didn’t see anyone Sudanese on TV ever,” he says. “If I went by the TV, you’d think we’re the most untalented people in the world. I want to be a part of a generation that changes that, for Sudan to be known for its artistic prowess.”
