Tanerélle is Equal Parts Love, Music, and Dreamgirl

If you aren’t already hip, Tanerélle is the singer you need to add to your “Winter Bae” playlist, the femme-fatale you should be following on Instagram, and the intergalactic queen sent to earth to unlock unconditional love. In other words, she’s an artist who uses music, sexuality, and words as her canvas. Her latest track, Dreamgirl is a self-love anthem to play on repeat while you’re soaking in the tub with a glass of wine or the perfect song for that lap dance you’ve been practicing in the mirror. Regardless of how you listen, once you hear it, you’ll understand why this independent artist has raked in over 3 million listens on Spotify. Tanerélle spoke to Bombshell about how Atlanta engrained a love for music in her soul, how she uses her body as a way to liberate her survival and what’s next for her career.

BOMBSHELL: Congrats on all of your success. You released your first album, 11:11 last year, which Galore magazine called “the perfect summer makeout soundtrack.” But Dreamgirl gives me a different seasonal vibe. Your latest song is like a cinnamon-stick bedtime anthem that’ll keep me warm in the winter while laid up with bae. What do you love about this song? What brought you to this place to create Dreamgirl?

Tanerélle: With all my music, I’m always trying to find a way to encourage people to remember that they are the universe and the universe is them – especially women. I want women to always feel the best they can about themselves. For Dreamgirl, I was trying to make something that was super encouraging but also sexy. I wanted something that people could listen to 100 different ways and not just place one meaning to either lyric, so one person can say “I got this from it” and someone else can say “oh, well I got that from it.”

BOMBSHELL: I’m stuck on these lyrics. In Dreamgirls, you echo, “With me, you can have all you want.” Who are you talking to? A significant other or is this supposed to be more introspective?

T: I feel like the lyrics can be for anyone. I didn’t have a specific person in mind when I was writing for that reason of not wanting it to be about anyone else. It could be for a significant other or it could be for yourself and you acknowledge that you are a dream. It’s a whole different level of you falling in love with yourself and proclaiming to the universe why you deserve everything amazing.

BOMBSHELL: The amount of success you’ve gained over the past few years is rare for an unsigned artist, but you’ve been killing it. Why is it important for you to pave your own way instead of jumping onto a record label?

T: I wanted to be able to start my career doing things 100% my way without anyone’s input on how I should do certain things, like how I should look or what I should sound like. As an independent artist in any field, when you’re able to craft who you are in the beginning, it’s more solidified and you have more power to stay yourself. When it comes to finally making it a priority to take on a team and create your own village, it’s hard for others to negotiate who you are if you’ve already established it. I was in a more vulnerable space when I had just started out, not having a clue of who I was at that time, so I’m glad I took the independent road.

BOMBSHELL: How did you start out and gain the sound you have now?

T: I’ve been doing music my entire life, I’ve been in choir since I was 5 all the way until senior year – vice president of chorus – and writing since I was 8. So it’s something that’s always been in my heart. When I was 18, I moved to LA and I got my BFA in acting and after graduating, I thought, “maybe I can take on the challenge of putting out music without being afraid of what people would say about it.” I had my first single, Siren sitting in my computer for 7 or 8 months before I put it out because I was just so nervous about it and scared of what people would say. Then, my friends were like, “you have to put it out, we don’t care what you say.” So I started sharing my music with the world and from there, my sound has evolved with me as a woman. As I grow, the more I’m able to put certain things in lyrics. My songs are compositions that reflect who I am as a woman or who I want to become as a woman.

Even all the parts of myself that I’ve never been quite proud of or sad about, I put that within the music too because there’s a story for everyone and I like to reflect that within my sound so everyone can have something to relate to.

BOMBSHELL: It’s fair to say your body and sexuality is a muse and a medium for your self-expression visually and lyrically. The black female body has always been scrutinized and put on trial – how did you learn to love your body and sexuality?

T: I feel like it was a matter of life or death. You’re either going to allow people to change who you are – and every factor of your being – or you’re going to be who you are unapologetically and live your fucking life. At the end of the day, when you die, you die alone. Nobody else gets to live your life for you, so I feel like me going on that journey of loving myself was a matter of survival. I spent so much time struggling with hating me, but evolving as an artist has been therapeutic to loving myself. Some things I put in the music can be what I go back to later to feel better or say, “she’s right.” I feel like my music is my higher self.

BOMBSHELL: You’ve been seen out and about with some other superstars like SZA and Karen Obilom. There are so many messages today about women standing together, but there is also that underlying stereotype that women – black women, in particular – don’t work well together. Why is it so important to you to go against that by uplifting your sisters in entertainment?

T: We can take over the world if we embrace each other and unite. It courses through our veins as black people – and Africans – to stick together because we know it takes a village. Over time, society has socialized us into forgetting that. And I feel like I still deal with so much trauma from growing up in black neighborhoods, never being accepted and the only people bullying me were the black kids. But as I grew up, I realized I don’t have to make that my reality. I can turn that around and make it a message to other black girls, women, people, that we are stronger in numbers.

If we’re trying to push the message of unconditional love throughout the world – which I feel is the ultimate healing for the world, then we need to practice that and be that within ourselves. We need to realize that it’s not a competition, there is more than enough room for everyone’s dream to come true without it being anything shady or petty.

Karen is my best friend and all we know is that unconditional love instead of competition. But it’s unfortunate because I still deal with it everywhere I go. I feel like 90% of the time, I still get hate, but I feel more than not that we are trying to turn that tide and everyone will have no choice but to tag along.

BOMBSHELL: As an ATL-native, how has the home of hot wings, Stacey Abrams, and the world’s best weaves influenced your music?

T: Atlanta for me has always been the home of music. I grew up on ATL legends like TI, Andre 3000, and Ludacris. Growing up, it was always a heavy part of my life. Whether it’s waking up to music that made it clear that was cleaning day or bumping music in the car with my mom. When she’d leave, I’d sneak her CD books. Atlanta for me will forever be the home of music. With that being said, it will always be a core part of my life. Even people in Atlanta who aren’t musicians, it still runs through your veins.

BOMBSHELL: Some musicians have to isolate themselves to get into a creative mindset, others thrive off of interaction. What does your songwriting process look like?

T: I typically will write alone. I’m an only child, so I’m used to doing almost everything alone comfortably. I’ve recently been getting into the grove of being around other people while I try to create or creating for other artists, which has been really interesting and fun. You realize some people can bring out the best within your craft or make you better. Bouncing ideas back and forth between you and another mind versus having your solidified solo situation in your head and bouncing ideas around your own mind. But I don’t have a set routine, sometimes I can write a song in 10 minutes, sometimes it takes a month. Sometimes I’ll record a voice memo or write down some lyrics and come back to it, but it depends on where I am and what’s happening?

BOMBSHELL: How have your sources of inspiration changed since moving from ATL to LA?

T: I don’t feel like my inspiration has changed. I feel like my main dream since I’ve been young is making sure that I had a hand in seeing more of me reflected in different areas of art and in the world. I feel like we don’t see a lot of black people in film or television and music. When you think of black women, you don’t think of sci-fi, fantasy or intergalactic.

BOMBSHELL: What can we expect next from you? Another album in the works?

T: I am working on new music, but not a new album – yet. I’m working on visuals to get out to the world. And lining all my ducks in a row for the new year. I’m excited about life in the new year and being able to create at my leisure and be comfortable while doing it, so I’m just excited to see all the surprises that my craft will bring into my life.

BOMBSHELL: Bombshell is all about driving the culture of dope women forward. What makes you dope?

T: My dedication to living and loving unconditionally, regardless of what’s happening. As well as being grounded in forgiveness and growing within that makes me dope. When you live that way, you only manifest more of that and spread more of that to other people, and that leads to making the world a better place.

BOMBSHELL: What song is on repeat this week?

T: Summerwalker’s Deep

BOMBSHELL: If you could collab with any artist out today who would it be?

T: Erykah Badu

BOMBSHELL: Go-to karaoke song?

T: Adele’s Hometown Glory

BOMBSHELL: What makes you miss Atlanta the most…

T: When LA gets to into Fall because Atlanta has the prettiest Fall. But when it touches California, I just feel like I want to go home.

For more on Tanerélle, follow her on Instagram and Twitter, and check out her music on Spotify and Apple Music.