Elmiene’s new EP is dedicated to all those who have been deported

“I was picturing myself sitting in front of my house burning down,” says 23-year-old British-Sudanese singer Elmiene. “The feeling was like, ‘Whatever this is, we can’t change it, but maybe the wheel will turn again and it will be our time to come back.” It was from this emotion that Elmiene’s new EP, For the Deported, was born. 

Casting his raw, soulful vocals over stripped-back instrumentation, For the Deported is an intimate ode to all those who have been uprooted from their homelands and forced to settle in strange lands. The message couldn’t arrive at a more poignant time, given the widespread upheaval that the people of Palestine, Sudan, Lebanon and beyond are experiencing right now. But, as major chord progressions pierce through on tracks like “Grave News” and “Golden”, the project finds an incredible resilience within its tragedy. “We deserve to feel like goodbyes aren’t permanent,” Elmiene tells Dazed of the hopeful message behind the EP.

Elmiene’s own family were forced to relocate from Sudan to Germany just before he was born, ultimately settling down in Oxford a year later. He would regularly visit Sudan growing up, but the elusive notion of ‘home’ has followed him his entire life. “If I were a TV series, this would be the overarching plot that has been there since season one. Sudan has been there the whole time, through all of it,” Elmiene explains.  

And, indeed, his career has had a fair few story arcs by now. First, there was his viral cover of D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does it Feel)” in 2021. Then 20 years old and standing in trackies in front of his family’s dilapidated garage, the video proved his voice didn’t need much to stand out, and it immediately prompted cosigns from Missy Elliott, Pharrell Williams and Questlove. Weeks later, his then-unreleased track “Golden” was played at Virgil Abloh’s last ever Louis Vuitton catwalk show in Miami and, most recently, he was featured on Tiny Desk where, in stark contrast to his pitch-perfect singing voice, a cheeky British accent pokes through. He’s come a long way in three short years.

Now fresh off the release of his latest EP For the Deported, the British-Sudanese artist breaks down the heartfelt experiences behind the release.

Congratulations on the beautiful release, does it feel cathartic to have it out?

Elmiene: It feels great, a lot of this music has been sitting in the vault for so long waiting for a home, and I feel like For the Deported is a project that allowed me to give so many homeless songs a place to exist.

Your family home is, in some ways, the protagonist of the project. Could you describe it for us and what happened to it?

Elmiene: Home is a powerful thing, it’s your identity before you even knew you were alive. My home, Sudan, is a place that reflects my personality, my humour and my emotions without me even having to say a word. When you lose home it means the responsibility to express yourself is an endlessly harder task.

The project’s cover is a picture of you as a child. What memories do you have of this time?

Elmiene: My memories of this time are endless, but most of them revolve around being in that front yard in the picture. We used to spend hours doing anything there – sandcastles, playing Beyblade on massive metal dishes that were not made for Beyblade. We used to grow fruit in our front yard and every year when I would go I would get to see it grow.

There’s a bit of a full circle moment in one of your first songs, “Golden”, closing off the project. How has your career as an artist changed since this release? 

Elmiene: Weirdly enough, I feel like I was in the exact same place then as I am now. After I wrote “Golden” I spent a year solely writing trying to discover my voice as an artist, and I am in the same place now but instead in this process I am writing my first album. So it really is a full circle moment. 

You mentioned that the message of this project is “surely we deserve at least this”. Could you expand on what you mean by that?

Elmiene: I meant that we at least deserve to breathe, to sing, to cry, to know that every single one of us is okay. To feel like goodbyes aren’t permanent. 

The world is obviously undergoing significant trauma right now – from Palestine to Sudan. Do these recent events resonate with your deeper experiences?

Elmiene: It’s the reason I write, writing for me is my way of questioning the world and trying to figure out the way it beats. So when events like this happen are undeniable and affect so many people that I am connected to there is no doubt that it will resonate in how I live my life.

For the Deported is out now.