Krista Papista popped up on these pages a lot a couple of years back – she even wrote a piece for us about censorship and feminism in 2015. Since then, she’s released the Aman Aman EP and moved to Berlin, and started out on the trail for her second album, Sultana. A title track arrived a few months ago, and now we’ve got the first listen for you of her new single, Alexandra.
Alexandra is a Greek-language love song, that sees Papista dive into traditional Greek imagery to shower the object of her affection with praise, from the Homeric language in the lyrics (‘the light of dawn’, ‘Your god like aura’) to the lesbian Orthodox wedding in the video (by director Alexandros Boulgaris). Musically, it’s a slick electronic pop song, with a rippling rhythm and an audio warmth that makes it a smooth, easy listen. Drain away Papista‘s sordid-pop spirit, and you could even sell it as a mainstream pop song. That’s not the point though, obviously. Alexandra is 100% a Papista creation, and lives in a world that could only be hers. Check it out below.
The artist about her upcoming album:
‘Songs such as Greek Bastards, Kurdistan and Fantasmata tackle Cypriot, Greek, Kurdish and Catalan nationalism. Having a dual nationality and growing up in Cyprus, I was exposed to strong senses of nationalism by both the Greek-Cypriots towards Greece, and the Turkish-Cypriots towards Turkey – reflecting the people’s identity crisis and insecurity. I contend that these people identify with nationalism to cover their own failures and misdeeds and in the process try to prove their own power and righteousness. People should be free to develop their own views independently of nationalistic traits imposed upon them. I support diversity in human development, caring more about the other irregardless of their ethnicity.’
Krista Papista’s new album Sultana is out on November 2