Powerful pop star in the making

Yet Jeen is no stranger to the spotlight. Shortly after graduating from Concordia, she joined Akasha, an international pop cover band. For five years they toured from Malaysia to Morocco, and recorded original songs under the name A.K.A. Their song “Hot For Me” was picked up by Ubisoft for its Just Dance 4 video game.

After Akasha disbanded amicably, Jeen worked in marketing, and met Shawn Côté who is now her manager. With his encouragement, she started to explore a solo career, doing a few local gigs and collaborating online abroad, developing her sound.

“I kept trying and trying, it was frustrating,” Jeen says. “But each time I thought, ‘This isn’t me,’ it made me clearer on what was me.”

Jeen and Côté decided to go to Europe, where they believed people are more open to new forms of music. There, working with connections made from her touring days, she refined her style. “When we got back, I knew my voice,” she says.

Long way from home

Jeen started to perform at age 10 with her mom, a nurse who sang in local clubs on weekends in their small hometown of Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Que. Jeen took her stage name from her mom’s family name, Jean.

The power in her pipes is partly thanks to the town’s vocal teacher being an opera singer.

Wanting a bigger place in which to sing, Jeen moved to Montreal for CEGEP. “I chose not to study music, to have a plan B,” she says.

After that, to learn English, she nannied in Hawaii for the better part of a year, then worked hard to get into Concordia. Jeen was incredibly nervous at the entrance interview, and thankful to join the Department of Communication Studies, where she immersed herself in the language she felt most at home singing in.

Now, on the brink of her official debut, Jeen is looking to an international audience. Festivals are key, Jeen and Côté believe. “The performance is more and more important to a musician’s success these days, and helps makes fans,” Côté says, ever the strategist to Jeen’s artist.

Musicians must tour, and it’s a good thing Jeen is possibly happiest living out of a suitcase and meeting new people. To stay in top form on the road, she eats well and gets plenty of sleep.

Jeen has always liked fashion, so she and Côté decided to also promote her look through her own online store. She worked with local designers to create items that are especially hers — Jeen adamantly supports Montreal craftsmanship.

“I like the fantasy world, I wear all black,” she says. “My mom read palms and cards.” And her positivity shines in the ever-present silver jewellery and sparkle. Jeen sports a thin, silver-black line along her right cheekbone — “like a warrior,” she says — and chrome nails.

Jeen created a logo, a geometrical shape that can look like a diamond, a flower, a letter "E" and an eight, the symbol of karma and infinity. It’s tattooed on her left forearm, a highly visible place.

When Jeen looks down, she’s reminded that, now, “There is no plan B.”

• Check out Emi Jeen’s designs and more at emijeen.com.

Watch her "Rotten Chains" video:

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