New Project ‘JOŸA’ is Set to Drop on May 15th

When Julien Franck Bouadjie Kamgang, better known to the world as Tayc, first announced the coming of his second album ‘JOŸA’ at the Red Bull Symphony, a glimmer of hope filled the Parisian cold air. What most music critics would have described as the peak of Tayc’s career, the French-Cameroon Afropop singer suddenly quit music mid-performance after he had endured the dolorous passing of his late brother a year prior.

"This is Tayc's last summer. The road will end in 2025" was Julien’s last words on stage, and we swallowed every second of his final appearance with great chagrin, while convinced we would never hear from our favourite artist again. For months, Julien stayed off eye-sight, fueling the internet's wildest exchanges of mainly confusion and also empathy, before revealing to his supporters in December that it was only the beginning of a new chapter. And all of the stars in the skies seemed to align and point towards his newly-released single, ‘Super-Héros.’

‘Super-Héros’ feels like Tayc’s love letter to Cameroon. Accompanied by fragmented visuals of the ‘Forévà’ artist’s personal journey in the motherland, the sound truly lives up to its name; a new chapter of self-discovery and reconnecting with one’s African roots. Although Julien has always been known for singing about love to multiple significant others in different phases of a relationship’s cycle, some may accuse him of having been superficial in the past. However, the message behind this song feels deeply intentional, in which Tayc can be addressing an entire generation, his country, or maybe a blend of both, drenched in the history of a bloody battlefield and the reason his mother left her homeland for the Occident.

In the core of reflection, Tayc harmonizes in the most vulnerable state: “Joya, tell me where to go / Tell me where to go”, and we’re brought back to ‘TESTIMONY,’ a 2024 EP dedicated to Julien’s late brother. It goes without saying that, even by the first listen, we can sense that his pain still derives from this tragic passing and draw parallels to the familiar tone and lyricism Julien displayed in his previous project. “I heard all of the screams / and I felt the pain of your life” sings Tayc in the pre-chorus without sugarcoating. Is Julien now attempting to stretch a hand to his long-lost heritage through ‘Super-Héros’? It certainly is the case.

The Tayc you’ve seen before is not the Tayc you’re seeing now. God might have taken what’s most dearest to him, but he also gave him new life, as Julien is now a father of two children. Those are all new elements of his life, years apart from the person he was when Tayc first started his career in 2012. Some might say that he is experiencing an existential crisis, very common amongst men in their late 20s; however, it is far more complex than that. Take his mother shaving off his hair, for example, in ‘Il s’appelait Tayc’, what Julien is going through is an ego death. This is because he has no more use for his past self, who focused on all the sweetness that life offers, but now he is seeking something deeper, something more real, a spiritual awakening, per se, that encapsulates a man of substance rather than his materialistic gain.

Despite the simple build of the track, ‘Super-Héros’ is the perfect introduction to the new universe Tayc is trying to paint. One that is introspective, urges you to reflect and hypnotises you with its soft resonance. Words of Bamenda (One of Cameroon’s 250 native tongues) and instruments such as the glistening piano and saxophone outro-play only reinforce the galactic transition to a new beginning. Tayc’s different branding is a stage of agape, healing, and looking from within, but most importantly, we can expect ‘JOŸA’ to be a project of hope.

You may listen to Tayc’s new single here.