Kelela's 'New Avatar' Goes Viral as She Takes a Gaza Stand
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- Kelela released her third studio album 'New Avatar,' a guitar-forward reinvention targeting a 'two-thirds guitar, one-third dance music' ratio, drawing on her 'White Bag' playlist of music she'd previously been sold as 'white music'
- Kelela joined over 400 artists in withdrawing her music from Israeli streaming services last year as part of the No Music For Genocide campaign, and cut a collaboration with an artist who did not share her values
- Kelela lost a brand partnership deal after speaking out, though the company decided not to ask for the money back, telling her 'we don't want to fuck with the [bottom] line'
- PinkPantheress, who features on the new single 'The Bridge,' credited Kelela with widening the market and 'opening doors for other Black female electronic/pop artists'
- Janiva Ellis, the painter Kelela collaborated with, helped shape the album's aesthetic, drawing on Octavia Butler's 'The Parable of the Sower' for the track 'Idea 1' about a disintegrating relationship against a world on fire
- Kelela began in indie rock in Washington DC, playing in band Dizzy Spells alongside then-partner Tosin Abasi, lead guitarist of progressive metal band Animals as Leaders
Why it matters: Kelela's 'New Avatar' fuses shoegaze guitar with her established R&B and electronic palette, and her audience has grown as memes of her image spread — but she has lost a brand partnership over her political speech and joined 400+ artists in withdrawing from Israeli streaming services, showing the concrete commercial cost of keeping activism central to her art.
