Born from a French mother and a Burkina bé/Senegalese father, Jennifer Zono… Read Full Bio ↴Born from a French mother and a Burkina bé/Senegalese father, Jennifer Zonou aka Hawa has been rocked in music from an early age. As a DJ addicted to all kind of grooves, her father passed her on his genuine love and great vinyls collection of Rap, Soul, Funk, Jazz, Afrobeat, or Reggae music. While her mother, keen on American Folk and Pop, gave her awareness and sensibility for the beautiful melodies and songwriting of artists such as Rickie Lee Jones.

Yet it was not until 2000 that Jennifer began her singing career. A native of Macon (near Lyon, France), it was only after she met with IPM, a Hip-Hop group from Lyon, that she gained confidence in her skills and decided to start practicing in the best possible school: Gospel. Thus she joined the choir called “Héritage Soul” (Soul Legacy), where she connected with Raphael Chambouvet, keyboard in the choir and in many projects of the Lyon’s music scene such as CHK, or later Mr Day.

At that time, her voice could be spotted on many Hip-Hop projects from Lyon, including Dialect Music, Casus Belli and therefore IPM, but it’s only when she entered a new choir, « Precious Voices » that Jen took another turn in her career. She then rose in a Nu-Soul duo act called Ebony Source, whose album will certainly never be released, but which allowed her to tour seriously and to open for top French artists such as Diam’s or Wallen, but also for international names such as Lizz McComb.

Jennifer then began to work solo with her old mate Raph, who has since continued to play in bands such as Mr Day and who quickly liaised her with Favorite Recordings (Dynamics Onra, The Funk League Solomko Andre…) and his founder Pascal Rioux. A new Hawa was born, raising the challenge of writing in English with surprising ease. Very soon the first demos came to life, including « Sweet Lucky Day », which will later be found as the B-side of her first single « D.A.N.C.E. « , released in 2009.

In 2008 she met with Bruno « Patchworks » Howart (Metropolitan Jazz Affair, Uptown Funk Empire, Mr Day, Mr President…) at a concert in Lyon. Internationally renowned within the indy Soul/Funk music scene, Patchworks is immediately interested and offers to produce some songs for her. Coming next is a first acclaimed 7inch (“Dance”) and several appearances alongside Mr Day and Mr President, naturally followed by the common desire to collaborate further. The result is called ‘My Little Green Box’, first album by Hawa due for release on June 6th 2011 on Favorite Recordings.

Mainly produced by Patchworks, MLGB is naturally instilled with the Soul/Funk touch that made him successful. But the album is also deeply led by Jennifer’s eclectic influences, and each of its 11 songs is the result of a true joint effort between her, Bruno and Raph on some tracks like « Full of Love. » Above all, this mysterious “green box » contains 11 great groovy nuggets and reveals a fully uninhibited Hawa. She impresses first thanks to a natural musicality gained through her years of Gospel, but also makes her own imprint with an approach to writing and rhythm very inspired by her long passion for Rap. In the wake of the Queen Sharon Jones and all her Soul daughters such as Nicolle Willis or Giselle Smith, Hawa could well find her place in the circle of the international top Soul Sistas, thanks to this first faultless attempt. Now we hope you’ll feel the same!!