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Yseult defies definition. A powerhouse. A poetess. A paradox.
“As an artist, I need constant reinvention,” explains the French singer-songwriter. “It’s at the heart of my work… like a snake that is constantly shedding its skin.”
It’s this creative urgency that has fuelled her endless experimentation with her sound and her image, transcending musical genres and subcultures. And her latest incarnation, which sees Yseult shapeshift between femme fatale and a futuristic vision for GRAZIA’s Call of the Wild cover shoot – a hypnotic study in form and defiance, where light, shadow, and distortion collide, reimagining fashion into architecture, myth, and pure visual force – is no exception.
Fittingly, she pays tribute to Grace Jones, as illustrated by Richard Bernstein, for the artwork of her 1977 album Portfolio in all her power, strength, and drama – both as an artist and a woman. A myth in motion, it’s a role she embodies effortlessly and makes her own. “Grace was never just about clothes; she was about disruption, and I relate to that,” she explains. “I love taking risks, pushing silhouettes, making people uncomfortable – in the best way. She was ahead of her time, and I’m obsessed with being ahead of mine.” This is just the latest in the many faces and fortunes of Yseult.
“Every era, I burn, I rebuild, I rise, I create, I destroy, I reimagine. That’s the work of an artist: chasing your next truth.”
France first fell in love with Yseult Marie Onguenet when she reached the final of the TV talent show Nouvelle Star in 2014. The rest of the world fell in love with her 10 years later, after her haunting rendition of My Way at the closing ceremony for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics – the only French chanteuse chosen by the host nation to fly its flag, alongside Billie Eilish, Snoop Dogg and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Yet her journey to join the ranks of France’s most iconic female artists has been as complex and unexpected as Yseult herself. Following her Nouvelle Star breakthrough, she was quickly signed to Polydor and released her eponymous album, Yseult, in 2015. Two years later, she parted ways with her record company and the career that had been mapped out for her to start her own label, YYY. She has since dropped three EPs as an independent artist: Rouge and Noir in 2019, and Brut in 2020, plus the 2024 album Mental.
On her decision to pursue her own destiny, she declares, “Freedom is priceless. I couldn’t let someone else hold the keys to my art, especially as a Black pop artist. I had to learn the business, build my own label and make sure my voice couldn’t be muted. It’s a fight every single day, but now I call the shots and own my masters, and I sleep at night knowing my art is truly mine. I’m not just making music, I’m building my legacy.”
Yet, more than 10 years after she first found fame, the French-born sensation with Cameroonian roots reveals she’s still fighting a battle to be seen, respected, and understood. “I fight by existing loudly – by taking up space and refusing to shrink,” she insists. “My fight isn’t just mine, either. It’s a blueprint for anyone who’s been told they don’t belong.”
A decade in the public eye has only made her more determined. “My strength comes from the people who carry me when I’m exhausted, like my fans, my sisters, my community,” she admits. “They remind me why I keep going. I want a world where we don’t have to fight to be seen, but until then I’ll keep fighting.”
How Yseult aspires to take up space in the music industry is by radically reimagining its beauty standards. And she has done so with such defiance and success that L’Oréal Paris made her a global spokesperson in 2021.
“For centuries, the Black body has been labelled, judged, politicised, fetishised, and almost never seen as simply human,” she laments. “My mission is to reclaim it, to celebrate it. My body is not an object, but a story, a weapon, a beautiful love letter. Every time I show up, I rewrite the narrative. Period!”
Does she believe she’s redefining Western beauty standards? “I don’t think I’ve ‘redefined’ anything,” she rejects. “I just exist loudly and sometimes, existing as a Black, beautiful, curvy woman feels like the most radical thing I can do. The industry still treats bodies like mine as rare, but we’re not rare, we’re just erased.” But, laughing confidently in the faces of her critics, she challenges, “Maybe it’s because I’m the future that they’re scared?”
Sultry, smoky, and staccato, her vocals, like the singer herself, also resolutely refuse to be defined. “I think my voice is a spell – it pulls you in,” she offers. “Sometimes it’s raw and emotional, sometimes it heals, but it always leaves a mark.”
Her dizzyingly diverse body of work has thus far spanned la chanson française, R&B, pop, neo-soul, trap, post-punk and electro – and each new genre and sound is accompanied by its own aesthetic. “In the past, I needed to be vulnerable, and now I need to be fierce and unapologetic,” she tells us. “Mental was my way of stepping into my power and showing it on stage. I keep my personal life private so I can stay focused and keep evolving. I think people should let go of the idea that someone – especially a woman – can only be one thing. It’s so much more exciting to be everything.”
And as an artist who transforms as her music evolves, few understand the power of styling as well as Yseult. “Fashion is how I let my music take shape,” she explains. “For example, for my last project, Mental, I dressed like an Amazon – leather, body, dark energy. Woman is my new ’80s pop fantasy album, and I see colourful fabrics, silhouettes with attitude, and big shoulders. Fashion doesn’t just amplify my music, it translates it into a world you can walk into.”
Luxury fashion houses are paying attention, too. In July 2020, Olivier Rousteing invited her to perform her songs ‘Corps’ and ‘Noir’ as part of his Balmain sur Seine spectacle at Paris Haute Couture Week, with Yseult cutting an iconic figure in an exquisitely cut, strong-shouldered, caped mini dress sailing past the Eiffel Tower.
“Olivier Rousteing was one of the first to show me that fashion can be empowering when it’s done with love and vision,” Yseult recalls. “Balmain makes me feel like a warrior on stage.”
And when asked which Maison she would like to work with, without hesitation, she responds, “I’d love to bring that same energy to Chanel to create a moment where my body is part of that legacy.”
Ahead of the North American tour for her latest album, Yseult is in New York “soaking in the chaos of Fashion Week” before flying straight back to LA for rehearsals. “It’s a season of glam and grind, exactly how I like it,” she smiles.
The 2026 North American leg of the Mental tour begins in January at Union Stage in Washington, DC, followed by dates in New York, Boston, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. “The stage is my sanctuary. No filter, no lies; just me, my voice and a dream. On stage, I feel unstoppable, loved, seen and understood.”
Despite her visceral stage presence, surprisingly, she reveals that her live shows are when she “stops performing and steps into her true self. “That’s where I stop playing a role and start becoming who I really am. I’m just, like, completely free!” And, in doing so, perhaps she’s able to share the purest distillation of her soul and the truest version of Yseult so far.
Audiences on her North American tour can expect “a whole new era”, she promises. “I’m adding some tracks from my next album, Woman, to the setlist, and my all-girl LA band is bringing the heat. I can’t wait to see my American fans again; the way they embraced Mental was so special, and I know they’ll feel Woman just as deeply.” The Mental live show will be the last time Yseult will be playing small. “This tour may start in clubs, but the dream is bigger,” she teases. “Who knows, maybe one day we’ll be at Madison Square Garden!”
Her creative co-conspirators have included Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign, French Montana, and a TikTok-famous song of the summer with Sevdaliza, but she’s not content to stop there. “I want to go global as a pop artist,” she proclaims. “I would love to meet women I admire, such as Doja Cat, SZA, Chappell Roan, Doechii, Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae – not just to make music with them but to share our experiences. It’s just about love and sisterhood.”
The master of her own metamorphoses, Yseult has irrevocably proved that she is the author of the narratives about herself she tells the world. And if she has Her Way, the next chapter in her compelling story will be known as: “The French girl who became a global superstar without asking for permission.”
DISCOVER GRAZIA’S FULL PHOTO SHOOT WITH YSEULT HERE.
CREATIVE DIRECTION: DANÉ STOJANOVIC. PHOTOGRAPHY: TAREK MAWAD. FASHION STYLIST: JONATHAN HUGUET. HAIR: JEAN-LUC AMARIN. MAKEUP: CLOTILDE PUVIS DE CHAVANNES. MANICURE: NAFISSA DJABI. SET DESIGN: ISABELLE CLOTTEN. EXECUTIVE PRODUCER & CASTING DIRECTOR: JEAN-MARC MONDELET. SENIOR PRODUCER: STEFF HAWKER. FASHION ASSISTANT: REBECCA PERRIER. LIGHTING ASSISTANT: ALESSANDRO FERRAIOLI. TALENT: YSEULT
THIS FEATURE IS PUBLISHED IN THE 23RD EDITION OF GRAZIA INTERNATIONAL. ORDER YOUR COPY HERE.
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