Anjulie: “Boom”

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Readers might like Guyanese-Canadian singer Anjulie (full name, Anjulie Persaud, which might be a variation on… “Anjali Prasad”):

Anjulie | Boom from Concord Music Group on Vimeo.

What do you think? I hear shades of Morcheeba and Esthero in both the vocals and the production, though this song is clearly a bit more commercial than either of those downtempo/indie favorites. I also can’t help but think of Apache Indian’s song, “Boom Shack-a-Lak” (1993), though Anjulie flips it around slightly: “Boom Shalaka Laka,” which makes the phrase more mellow. I take it this is coming from a real slang expression in the Caribbean, but now I wonder about its origins.

More on Anjulie: her album (titled “Boom”) is set to drop on Starbucks’ house label, Hear Music, this summer — which means you may well be hearing this song the next time you’re sipping a Caramel Macchiato. Also, she is on Twitter. [Thanks, Bookworm, for the tip]

23 thoughts on “Anjulie: “Boom””

  1. very boring and i dont think it’s just a gen gap or poor production or diff musical tastes. generally i steer clear of musical acts named after a person any way. solo artistes are too self-involved and unidimensional.

    btw – contrast this with the output from brownsound baksh for instance since sum41 and the Brown Brigade (to keep the brown theme). it’s not made my youtube channel yet but at least it isnt shite.

    Anjulie Persaud, which might be a variation on… “Anjali Prasad”):

    off topic but … ? not sure why this had to be mentioned. i hope it wasnt implied that she’s ‘changed’ her name or is trying to fit in or something. the island peepls dont write their names like indian indians y’know?

  2. Starbucks’ house label, Hear Music, this summer — which means you may well be hearing this song the next time you’re sipping a Caramel Macchiato

    hate. hate. hate.

    i steer clear of musical acts named after a person any way.

    Exceptions are made tho’ 🙂 for the quirky. yes. I can totally see starbucks put out songs about [BLEEPED BY RAJNI THE MONKEY — KHOOFIA YOU KNOW BETTER THAN THAT!]

    🙂

  4. StarBucks really makes me uncomfortable these days.

    They have these really weird Arabic sounding songs that keep blasting through the speakers and everyone inside just covers their ears when they hear them and I get looks like “This is your fault. You made them put this stuff on, didnt you?”

    Not to mention all the Hindi music they play these days. Everytime they play them and I hear a “Man, this shit sucks” from someone sitting near me I just feel really strange for some reason.

  5. BLEEPED BY RAJNI THE MONKEY

    eeps. sorry folks for offending. the intent was not prurient tho’.

  6. interesting. she’s really mellow. not to derail the comments, but out of curiosity are there any SM articles about the Indian diaspora? like Guyana or South Africa, etc. any SM readers?

  8. interesting. she’s really mellow. not to derail the comments, but out of curiosity are there any SM articles about the Indian diaspora? like Guyana or South Africa, etc. any SM readers?

    Lots — search for terms like: Guyana, Trinidad, Fiji, Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, etc. and you will see stuff.

  9. The song is not awful. Her voice is very boring though. The song doesn’t feel fresh or original. and it doesn’t say much either-with lyrics or anything else.

  10. Its been playing for a while in toronto now, and so far its been played enough here to garner a happy/pseudo reggae feel to it. Dont love it, but its catchy enough to like it. Plus, as you mention, the Anjulie variation piques your interest initially.

  11. I like it … though admittedly I’m a fan of Morcheeba-ish music in general.

    I get the sense that Persaud is a common Guyanese variation on Prasad. I had a Guyanese coworker sometime back named Persaud and, while I was teaching law in India, had a Canadian-Guyanese exchange student with the last name Persaud.

  12. I get the sense that Persaud is a common Guyanese variation on Prasad.

    not a burn but the ‘Aha!’ is a bit odd. Persaud is a very common name. its like saying – his name is ‘Singh’. i have an indian friend named singh (makes hand motion around the hed), so he must be indian.

    hmm.. may be lurker is right – the diaspora doesnt get much vizibilitee here.

  15. I don’t know many desi artists (how telling is it that I only recognize Apache Indian, haha), but I loved this song/artist. Thanks for sharing, A.

  16. Thanks for posting this — a lovely song, with masterful restraint a la Nelly Furtado.

  17. she sounds very similar to corinne bailey rae. both of these ladies have pretty, but boring, voices.

  18. Anjulie is very talented…her songs are catchy and complex. She’s the real deal. (As opposed to Sanjaya?????)

  20. Readers might like Guyanese-Canadian singer Anjulie (full name, Anjulie Persaud, which might be a variation on… “Anjali Prasad”)

    Yeah…well, as generation of people in India learned English, there seems to have developed a fairly standard way of transliterating names into English. When those born in India moved to America, they seemed to have brought these spelling with them. The Indians in the Caribbean, however, generally did not know English until they had to learn it upon arrival, so they kind of just spelled names in whatever way they thought reflected the pronunciation the most. So, naturally the spellings are different, as they developed as two separate systems of transliteration. “Anjulie” and “Anjali” are spellings of the same name, neither is more correct.

    As for “Persaud”, it might look odder, because the “r” sound is at a different part of the word. That’s just a matter of dialect. As LeVar Burton pointed out, the words are Bhojpuri, so they sometimes differ from other dialects of Hindi. No Carribean Indian pronounces the word “prasad”, it always pronounced “parsad”. There are other words too that a Caribbean Indian may use, that may sound odd to some Hindi speakers. For example turmeric is pronounced “hardi” instead of “haldi”, (uncooked) rice is called “chawar” instead of “chaval”, and fire is “aagi” instead of “aag”. At least, those are some differences I’ve noticed.

    interesting. she’s really mellow. not to derail the comments, but out of curiosity are there any SM articles about the Indian diaspora? like Guyana or South Africa, etc. any SM readers?

    I’ve seen at least one or two other articles that mention these parts of the diaspora. As for readers, we’re here. After leaving UP, my family became a part of the Indian community of Jamaica, though I was personally born and raised in the U. S. of A. Even disconnected from India, an brown is an brown , we can’t resist a good Desi blog every now and again. 🙂 I read SM all the time, it amuses me.

  21. i love it! im glad a hot girl finally put guyana on the map….and her lastt name is persaud? me t0o thats whats up.

  23. (full name, Anjulie Persaud, which might be a variation on… “Anjali Prasad”)

    Definitely not necessary. I’m Guyanese-American. My last name might be a bastardization but it’s still my name and it represents, to some extent, where I’m from. I don’t think it’s wrong or needs to be corrected.