Sudanese-born, New York-based singer, songwriter, rapper, and multidisciplinary artist Nadine El Roubi is set to release her debut full-length album, Life Is Beautiful Again, this Friday. The project brings together music created over the past three to four years, though the themes at its heart have been brewing for a lifetime. Rooted in neo-soul, with influences ranging from hip-hop to indie, the album moves freely between genres, prioritising emotional honesty over categorisation.
Life Is Beautiful Again tells a deeply personal story of navigating inner and outer chaos, womanhood, belonging, and the determination to hold on to faith through struggle. Both melancholic and powerful, introspective and self-assured, it's an exploration of what it means to keep choosing hope, even when life gives you every reason not to.
In these confusing, challenging, and frightening times, art can turn into one of our only escapes from reality. Through this album, Nadine chooses to offer something more: a message of vulnerability, hope, and perseverance. I hope that, by hearing her music, more people can find their inner strength and be reminded that the beauty and hope we experience through art can and does still exist beyond it, too.
We had the pleasure of speaking with Nadine ahead of the album's release, exploring the life experiences and inspirations behind the project, her creative journey, and life as an artist.
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For our readers discovering your work for the first time, who is Nadine El Roubi? Tell us a little about your journey and the experiences that have shaped the person and artist you are today.
Oh gosh. Big question. A little terrifying. I’d say the album could tell you better than I can.
What does your creative process usually look like? What sparks an idea, and how does it develop from there into a finished song?
Not to sound totally pretentious, but my creative process is truly just living. I think there’s art in everything we do. I’m constantly humming melodies to myself, or listening to music or the world around me and getting inspired. I'm experiencing new stories to tell and ways to tell them every day. Right now I’ve been in release mode, and I’m notoriously bad at multitasking, so I haven’t physically sat down to write in a long time, but I’m always writing and ideating in my head.
What does making music and performing give you, personally?
It gives me life, a reason to live, something to look forward to. There is no greater honor or privilege for me than being offered real-life money to do what I would do for free, like breathing. I’m so grateful to be able to share. I’m so grateful anyone wants to listen. Writing music, making music, even releasing music no matter how torturous it is, performing - all these things keep me fulfilled.
What’s been a standout show or stage for you so far, and what made it memorable?
Performing at Battery Park in New York for Poet’s House this past August. I performed a lot of the new album and some old songs with a band (for the first time that year), by the water, overlooking the sunset and the Statue of Liberty on the horizon. The weather was beautiful. There was just the right number of people. I was sharing a stage with some of the brightest musicians I’d ever met, on a lineup featuring two talented wordsmiths, and I was doing it all with the new music in the city of my dreams. I definitely got emotional up there, because in that moment it hit me how lucky I am to be here, exactly where I’m meant to be. It was the magic of feeling my album manifest in real time - Life Is Beautiful Again. I have never played a show feeling as aligned.
“Hibiscus” dropped a couple of weeks ago as the first glimpse into your upcoming album. There’s something incredibly tender and vulnerable about the song - like pure love itself. Why did this song feel so special to you that you chose to introduce the project with it?
Thank you, that’s so kind of you to say. I knew I was proud of it just because the production felt undeniable, and I knew I was writing and delivering my vocals in a way no one had heard from me before. People’s reactions upon hearing it for the first time were also very affirming; the general consensus was that this had to be the first thing people heard of this era. And I think it brings you into the world and themes of the album beautifully.
I noticed you were also responsible for a big part of the visualiser, which is beautiful and really impactful. How did this visual side of your artistry emerge, and how does it connect with your music?
Again, you’re too kind. Thank you for taking the time to watch it. I’ve always been drawn to visual work. I drew a lot growing up, loved movies, and often pictured films in my head. As the smartphone developed, the ease of being able to take a picture turned into a passion for framing, editing, and color, and pretty soon I found myself stepping into professional photography, filmmaking, and design. Shout out to my parents for seeing the vision and getting me my first DSLR. Definitely a huge, pivotal moment. I still have a lot to learn, but I’ve always been obsessed with the visual medium and hope to continue exploring and growing there. For me, it’s an inseparable element of the creative process. And a craft I really respect.
Tell us about your forthcoming album, Life Is Beautiful Again. What inspired it, what was going on in your life while you were making it, how did the project come together, and who helped bring it to life?
Life Is Beautiful Again is the culmination of three years of work and a lifetime of experiences. I officially and unintentionally began writing it in 2023. I would say the first song created for the album (again, at the time I didn’t even know I was making this one) was Hibiscus. Garden followed, then in 2024 I ended up at Jakarta’s writing camp at Limusic in France. The following two years were spent traveling, moving to New York, and making a lot of music. I found so many versions of myself in this time. But it wasn’t until the end of 2025 that the album really started coming together.
What was the most challenging part of making this album, and what did it teach you?
Oh gosh. This album changed me. It taught me patience, trust, craft, intention, intuition, collaboration, everything. Making this project really and truly felt like an arrival to self, but a self that is forever evolving. It’s been such a privilege making this, and the challenges all lie in the practicalities of this being my first album, which logistically is a lot to learn from. It was a long, arduous, and extremely gratifying process. I’m still in it! I’ll be learning from this album and experience for years to come. It doesn’t end here. As my friend (and the album’s exec producer) Narcy says, we are always in process.
Now that the album is on its way into the world, what are you most excited for people to experience in it?
I hope they experience themselves. I hope they see their lives, struggles, achievements, and perseverance in it. I pray that they come out the other side feeling like they know themselves a little better, or at least want to learn about themselves a little more.
And finally, what have you been listening to lately? Give us one current favourite and one all-time favourite.
To be so real, I’ve been listening to the album a lot. I’ve been trying not to. My friends keep telling me to step away. I had to delete the [untitled] app it’s been living on, because I just kept listening for mistakes. And I use it to visualize a lot. I’ve been listening and visualizing its birth. But aside from that, I’ve been listening to a lot of Lana Del Rey. A little bit of Born To Die, a lot of Tunnel, some Ultraviolence. A lot of rock too. Just been in the mood to hear a killer guitar solo lately.
