NAIMA JORIS & VITJA PAUWELS: ‘ENJOY THE SILENCE’

NAIMA JORIS & VITJA PAUWELS: ENJOY THE SILENCE

By popular demand, Naima Joris presents ‘Enjoy The Silence‘: a concert series highlighting Naima’s encores.

With no ambition of ever being on a stage, Naima Joris taught herself the basics on guitar and piano at age 27; just enough to play and sing the cover songs at home that appealed to her heart.

That’s how she was picked up from her living room by Gaetan Vandewoude to serve as a backing singer at Isbells for a short time. A little later, she sang a lead song for the first time for an audience with Raymond van het Groenewoud at a Radio 1 session. Her father, jazz musician Chris Joris, pulled her onto the stage starting in 2016 as a guest singer in his band. That’s how she discovered the depths of her own voice.

One day she received a tip from an enthusiastic listener to cover a song by Cesária Évora. That tip grew into a cover of “Sodade” during the first lockdown, which she posted online. The huge success of that Facebook post brought her into the spotlight. Many other intimate covers followed, and she continued to move her listeners.

While everyone’s career was on hold, Naima broke through when she was 39. This gave her the opportunity to pay tribute together with her brother, Yassin, to their deceased sister in the form of her first EP. (“Naima Joris” 2021). After the ode came a tribute album of songs by Daniel Johnston, in whose working method and world of feelings she finds common ground. (“Tribute to Daniel Johnston” 2022). The fall of 2022 also marked the release of her first album-length debut (“While The Moon” 2022).

For the next step, she returns to the basics. Accompanied by guitarist Vitja Pauwels, she sets off on tour with the covers with which she broke through. As always, she takes the songs of others and makes them almost her own. Expect well-known – and little-known – Southern European traditionals, French chansons and English songs in a new twist. Dream away…