Lena Ayal

Lena Ayal

Daughter of an Indonesian jazz musician father, and a Franco Belgian mother, Lena grew up as a Dutch National in Brussels. It's thanks to her sensual and haunting voice, tinted with a flow of both charisma and magnetism that she signed her first album in French as a singer songwriter under Francis Cabrel's label. Her life of travelling, passion and encounters, gives this new album a feeling of completeness. "I'm continually seeking the path between my background and my influences." she says.

As a child, Lena would listen to her father on the saxophone, enchanting her with the sounds of Lester Young, Frank Sinatra, Count Basie and Tony Bennett. Later on Lena discovered her own kind of music delving into soul & funk with Prince, Chic, Earth Wind and Fire, and Marvin Gaye…

These are clear influences in her new album "It had to be you", inspired by Jazz classics, and adapted to a groovier sound. Lena found her dream band in Paris, all her musicians being from different places and backgrounds. She recorded the album in Brussels and asked her father to write the brass arrangements. This album is a blend of generations, cultures and, sensitivity. An obvious combination for an artist with such a colourful background. A pearl to be discovered and treasured