Imperious and controlled, Marie-Pierra Kakoma – the Belgian artist who performs as Lous and the Yakuza – is singing about “la money” to a rapt crowd. From her latest album, last year’s Iota, the track reflects on what happens when “plus de money” sours a relationship. Although peppered with English, the lyrics to Kakoma’s banging R&B songs are mostly in French. Her meaning has no problem landing with this small but partisan London crowd. Its core message – more money, more problems – is driven home by Kakoma’s delivery and her emphatic live band.
Swagger and a certain cross-Channel sophistication are only part of her appeal, though. A great many artists are being forced to diversify their offering to make career ends meet. Kakoma is a something of an instinctive Renaissance woman, a 360-degree artist whose talent, savvy, cross-cultural breadth and sense of mischief call to mind artists such as Spain’s boundary-vaulting Rosalía – or a Belgian Beyoncé.
