“I just killed a man, she’s my alibi,” sings musician Sevda Alizeh, otherwise known as Sevdaliza. An anthem for badass people, the line is the core of her newest song, “Alibi”, featuring the stylish and idiosyncratic French singer Yseult (whose real name is Yseult Marie Onguenet) along with Pabllo Vittar (Phabullo Rodrigues da Silva ), the most iconic drag queen and singer since RuPaul.
Though the song has been popularized on TikTok as the beat to sexy dance trends and swaying hips, its hypnotic allure runs deeper.
Not only does the song boast lyrics in Spanish, Portuguese, English and French, but its artists represent a rich range of identities. Sevdaliza is a Dutch-Iranian refugee from Tehran, Iran, who fled the country at age 15. Making her way to the Netherlands on a small bus in the countryside, she embraced Dutch as one of her new primary languages, learning it through music.
With a master’s in communications and a background playing basketball for the Dutch national team, Sevdaliza casually taught herself how to sing and use music software at age 24, creating sick tunes and following her true passion for music.
Like Sevdaliza, Yseult, who was born to Cameroonian parents, took a detour towards making music despite her parent’s disapproval. Taking bold risks and power moves, she skipped school to audition for France’s version of American Idol, where she placed fourth. After an unsuccessful partnership with the record label Polydor, Yseult went rogue and now manages her own music production.
The eccentric artist also has a resume of other impressive side careers including collaborations with luxury fashion brands Balenciaga (whom she is the first plus-size model to walk for) and Alexander McQueen. She hasn’t conformed to corporate modeling, though, stressing the importance of plus-size inclusion in fashion and beauty as well as embracing her natural hair texture.
Most familiar of “Alibi”‘s trio is Vittar, the most streamed and followed drag artist in the world with over 12 million Instagram followers, surpassing RuPaul. In a conservative Brazilian society, Vittar fearlessly embraced his femininity and queerness despite being bullied for it as a child. When he was rising to fame and making queer music, conversion therapy was still legalized in Brazil and gay marriage had only just been legalized.
Since then, Vittar has established himself as a very fluid person embracing femininity in public and a more masculine aesthetic in his private life. His collaborations with Calvin Klein and duet with Madonna have earned him the title of “the world’s next big drag queen” by The New York Times. Highlighting his Brazilian heritage and LGBTQ pride side by side, Vittar inspires us to balance two seemingly opposing cultures. The queer scene in South America has risen in prominence in part because of Vittar’s advocacy for its visibility.
Most mainstream music is saturated with American artists, as the U.S. has the largest music market in the world as of 2022. Brazil and France have made the top 10 consistently, with the Netherlands peaking once in a blue moon, but Iran, hardly ever. Having people of color rise on top from France and the Netherlands is what marks a true celebration for “Alibi.”
The Billboard charts support this celebration too. In fact, “Alibi” placed 19th in Billboard Global’s 200 charts and in the top ten for Latvia, Switzerland, Poland, Romania, Brazil, Greece and Hungary. In the U.S. and Canada, the song made Billboard’s Top 100, a first for all three artists. Vittar is now the second drag queen to top the charts aside from RuPaul.
The commercial success of ‘”Alibi” is something to be praised. The song is an inspiring and interpretive masterpiece of female empowerment, sexual fluidity and cultural inclusion. It even incorporates the Colombian song, “Rosa Que Linda Eres,” a fun piece from Majín Díaz y el Octeto Gamerano.
All three musicians have also made it a point to make it known that their music is political. Sevdaliza has a protest song from 2020 called “Oh My God” which promotes anti-war sentiments between Iran and the U.S. Vittar’s music is noted as the “unofficial anthems of Brazil’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community.” Yseult addresses body image issues and mental health struggles in her 2019 EP, Noir.
“For me to be an artist today it is political,” Yseult said in an interview with The Cut. “When you have an audience, someone who’s listening to you, they see themselves in you. Even if it’s ugly, even if it’s beautiful. It’s me.”
In short, “Alibi” is a powerful social statement that brings attention to the unrecognized talent of queer and female musicians of color. It embraces the beauty of Black women and plus-sized bodies, the resilience of an Iranian artist challenging the identity of a “refugee victim” and the tenacity of an openly queer artist in Latin America.
Sevdaliza, Yseult and Vittar are here, ready to make power moves and show that musicians of color should lead charts and shouldn’t hold back in welcoming their different cultural identities.
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