flowerovlove has her career in full bloom

Written by: Alivia Stonier & Laila Freeman

Uptight Magazine sat down with 1824 - Universal Music Group to celebrate the release of a new album from London-based pop star Joyce Cissé, or as her fans know her, Flowerovlove. What became immediately apparent was not only the growing love for the artist in the room but also the way that she was truly intentional in her art. 

The “new friends” artist shared about womanhood, the “inside scoop” about new music, and even world domination.

At 21 years old, the London-based pop artist has quickly become a voice that rings out as an ode to girlhood and growing up. Her debut album, ‘Mini Skirt Warrior,’ even features a collaboration with Willow on a closing track, “Girls Will Be Girls.” 

The artist is stepping into an exciting new chapter as she’s on the road with Niall Horan, part of the UK and European dates of his ‘Dinner Party’ tour.

Flowerovlove is coming in with a fresh level of excitement. The artist immediately started sharing about her journey by opening up about her self-expression and the journey leading up to this record.

TikTok, the teenage years & today

“When I was about 14, I used to be heavily obsessed with scrolling on TikTok and I was just in a very sad state. Then one day I went to a magazine store with my brother and saw this thing about the law of attraction and I was like, ‘what’s this book?’ I started reading books more. 

“And from that point on in my life, I started to have the mindset of choosing my emotions more than letting my environment and the people around me and what I was consuming, affect me. When I was 15, I was like, ‘I'm choosing to be happy.’ It's a very controversial take because everyone lives a very different life, but I was like, ‘I'm choosing to be happy because I woke up today.’ That was my main thing, practicing gratitude. So I went from that crazy mindset into this big, grateful state, and I've kept that with me from 15 to 21.”

Doing so cannot always be an easy choice, but it is a radical one, and you could sense the determination for the choice in the call as she spoke.

“I've been hella consistent journaling and doing all of the above, and that showed up in the album more in like a vulnerable state. I never used to be a very vulnerable person whatsoever. And writing about how I truly felt was a really, really big deal, like a huge deal. And so writing this album, I was like, ‘I gotta write about something real because it's really been missing. I've been missing some substance in my music.’

“‘new friends’ was more like masking my inner real feelings. That's why I also made the alter ego of Mini Script Warrior because it was like, okay, well Mini Skit Warrior wrote that and not Flowerovlove. But this album is half Mini Skirt Warrior and half Flowerovlove. When it gets sad and it gets real and it's like acoustic guitary, that's Flowerovlove. But the whole like ‘I'm your first bad bitch or whatever,’ that's Mini Skirt Warrior down.”

Music is one of those spaces where an artist can find an alternate version of themselves, and if not completely fictional, coming from a place of confidence that may not have been birthed yet, which in turn feeds their natural self to become more aligned with who they are on the stage.

However, this confidence doesn't appear to simply stem from the alter ego or from the stage itself but also the fluidity and comfort in being able to reinvent your sound over time. 

With the new release comes the pressure of success despite the fact that she has been in the public eye both as a musician and a model for many years now.

“Modeling really helped me get into that. When I started modeling at 15, I was just like, ‘This is a whole new world.’ I realized I had to fake it till I made it, and that stays with you, and you just keep that confidence.” 

And while she may have a specific brand for her aesthetic, the social media pages are a different story: “I choose to tap out of content (creation) when I make music because that takes away the whole point.” 

There is an increasing level of pressure for artists to try to be a TikTok sensation, and once it happens, once that itch is there, it can be difficult to resist the urge to continue to scratch, and this separation has clearly been important to the artist as she opened up more about the difficulties of potential and the pressures that people put on early careers. 

“It's a very internal pressure that I put on myself. I hold things to such a high standard. I have very specific tastes and high standards for art, even though art isn't something you're supposed to judge, but I just have very specific tastes and I’m very picky.”

She continued by saying, “As human beings, we're here to live. But as an artist, I have to go further, so when I choose to step back into that is when I'm back into that mindset. But right now I'm just living.”

The musician has also undeniably stayed grounded with the help of her brother, as she not only cited him giving her the best advice but has also worked directly with her on many projects. 

“His opinion is the only one besides mine that I actually value, like genuinely. I'm always like, ‘Oh, what do you think? What do you think? What do you think?’ and I'm not a ‘what you think?’ person at all. I'm always like, ‘What I think is what I care about.’ And having that relationship is so important in the music industry and it really helped me become a more secure human being and feel emotionally stable in this industry where there's so many people with their hands in the mix. But when you have the one hand who you know actually cares about your wellbeing, genuinely has your best interest, it's so valuable and it sustains you for sure. I'm very grateful for him and he is my best friend.” 

This collaboration between the pair clearly began very early. Together they made ‘Legend Has It’ as a fun demo when Joyce was 15. 

She originally played around with making “Victoria’s Secret” the album opener, but wanted more of an 80s feel. Ultimately, she decided on “Legend Has It” because she really wanted her brother included on the album. Plus, she figured it’d be a “great, very funny, iconic opener.”

“Why is there a zebra here?” 

She feels “the root of pop is disco” and as she puts it, is taking it back to the 70s and 80s as she sprinkles different aspects into the art. Reminiscent of those decades is all the animal print, hence the zebra on the ‘Mini Skirt Warrior’ cover. 

“Anything can happen in your life, you could be anywhere and anything can happen. A lot of things don't surprise me anymore because I'm like, ‘damn, this really is life. We’re really on a floating rock.’ It's crazy, right? The zebra mainly specifically was about how the album goes from, ‘I'm such a bad bitch,’ to, ‘I want my baby back. I'm so sad. Why don't you love me?’ It was more like, ‘why is there a Zebra here?’ I think zebras are very glamorous too. I think they're amazing. I think they're very elegant and beautiful. It's just a better horse, really, and I was like, ‘I really want that in the artwork.’ 

Sharing is caring: from a song with Willow to the stage with Niall Horan

Going into this new record, it was clear that collaboration was key, and Joyce welcomed the new experience.

“It was very fun making it. It was very vulnerable for me to write certain songs like that. I was a very out-of-emotions person, but now I feel like a full woman. I feel like I’m a lady, truly. Without these writers, it wouldn't be the same. Sometimes you have to be in a room with very successful people who have been doing stuff for almost longer than you've been alive or longer than you've had a developed frontal lobe to unleash your inner songwriting beast. Without many of these great songwriters and producers, I wouldn't have unleashed it. 

“You really do need someone like at the start of the race to be like, ‘You got this. I'm standing on the other side with some water right now.’ You know? And it also just helped me grow as a human being because within my art, I've never been a collaborative person. I always had the mindset of like, ‘no one could ever write something that I feel, so why would I let anyone in the room?’ But friendships and collaboration just create so much joy in music and so much freedom. Everything is way more fun with your best friend than by yourself. 

“Within my art, I've never been a collaborative person before, but friendships and collaboration create so much joy in music and so much freedom. Everything is way more fun with your best friends than by yourself.“The Willow feature honestly still blows my mind, truly. She actually reached out to me and was like, ‘I think we can make great art someday.’ And I was like, ‘There is absolutely no way I would ever not do it.’ It's just too iconic. Me and her is insane, and it still doesn't feel real. Every time I see her, I'm just like, ‘You're. Not. Real.’” 

Although, the album isn't the only place where collaboration is happening, the stage is. 

An artist who understands the stage deeply and what it means to be a performer for many years in all its evolutions is Niall Horan, and as a long-time Directioner, she put the ‘joy’ in Joyce sharing what it was like when she discovered she’d be joining him on tour.“I don't know how I'm going to act when I see this man. That is my actual childhood, genuinely one of the first pieces of music that has ever graced into these ears. That is insane, and I was nonchalant, now I'm very excited, now I'm chilling, but we had also been plotting and manifesting it for a while. So I was like, ‘I hope it happens.’ The thought was there. It wasn't like an out of the blue thing. Me and my manager were like, ‘We're gonna make this happen, and it happened, so I'm excited. I did tell Niall that I'm not going to act normal when I see him.”

This love of performing has early roots, as she opened up about the excitement she has always had when she began making music.

“Performing (my debut album) has always been exciting, having a real story to tell and a body of work people can sink their teeth into. What I didn't expect is honestly how much hard work it is to just do stuff. Being a human being is high maintenance, and being an artist on top of that is very high maintenance. There's a lot going on all the time, and it’s like, ‘damn, I just want to make music,’ but there's a lot more that people don't know it takes to make this a job and make it feel fulfilling and feel like it’s a success.”

From girl to woman to Mini Skirt Warrior

Flowerovlove is often recognized by her identifiable fashion sense, often coming in the form of a short skirt, high socks, and sweet pumps. She believes being recognizable is “super important” and loves a silhouette. She mentioned that she’s been recognized for her hair and her fashion in the past.

Joyce also spoke to the inspiration behind the album title, which connects to her stage name like a petal to a stem:

“I feel like it plays more on the word warrior also because to be a woman means to be very strong. And I also see women as flowers because flowers to me are the strongest plant because the way that flowers shrivel up and die and then just grow back up and bloom, I don't know if you ever watch a flower bloom, but it's the most beautiful thing that I think a human can experience, maybe apart from childbirth.

“The warrior just really shows that strength and I would use rebellion, but I would also use becoming. ‘Becoming’ is more the word of like, ‘I'm figuring out who I am, this is how I'm gonna dress, this is why I'm doing this, I'm blah, blah, I'm gonna be alternative, I'm gonna be quirky, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do that.’ It's more like ‘the becoming’ and there's so much power in that and there's so much warrior in that.

Flowerovlove made it clear, “We just need to let women dress how they want to dress. So I am glorifying a miniskirt. Absolutely.”

“Black artists do make pop music”

Joyce has a special relationship for her early music that still feels authentic. She cited her track “Baby” as still feeling true to who she is today. With this comfortability in both her past and present selves comes the ability to also empower generations of Black alternative women that have faced a lot of stereotypes not only in this aesthetic but also in this industry.

“I started off with a very niche, bedroomy indie sound. The main thing I advocate for is that Black artists do make pop music, because we get boxed into a genre just because of how we look, and only Black people really do understand that to a core, to the essence. 

“Most music when you break it down has jazz components. For this album, I was just like, ‘I'm going to make something that sounds like what's deep in my heart.’ Some songs are teasing into my next era, which is ‘Legend Has It,’ which is crazy. I made that song when I was 15, so full circle moment. I decided to make songs where if what people now call the pop girlies had sung or released them, they would be called pop songs. It's undeniably pop.”

The artist had this advice for the younger artists who are hesitant to push back against traditional Black stereotypes: 

“You really just need to do it. If you feel scared to do it, that means you have to do it because it's not been done before, and someone has to do it. So it's gotta be you. If no one has done it before you, and you have this inkling, you have to do it. That's why I do the things that I do because I'm just like,’ I would've just loved to have seen it.’”

She continued, “There's now a duty to the younger generation. They have to see it. There's so many different types of Black people and people need to know that because a lot of people don't know that. And it's very important to put yourself forward. And put us on stage, you know?Show off how we can be, how alternative we can be, how quirky we can be, how awkward we can be, how amazing we can be. And we have had great examples like Andre 3000, SZA, so many amazing artists who I still don't feel like have enough recognition. So we gotta keep going until that cycle breaks.”

“No one knows this…” but now you do

What’s the next thing Flowerovlove is manifesting? World domination, which entails “Happiness, for as many people as I can, even if it’s just for an hour.”

Bummed she didn’t say new music? Don’t be. It’s just not out yet. “...My next album, which I can confirm is finished. No one knows this.”

In case you wanted to know who Joyce is listening to, she raved about artists Q and Alemeda. 

Meeting Joyce was so refreshing because of her openness about the process of being a pop star and what it really looks like outside of the melodies, even when the music is the most special piece of the artistic puzzle.

There is no doubt that she will continue to shine as she takes the stage with Niall Horan, and you can be on the lookout for her latest album to continue to follow her ever-growing journey. 

For those that love an ambiance, Flowerovlove revealed what scent her music would be.

“There would be some cinnamon. There would be some sandalwood, but then there’d also be that fresh smell of grass when you step in a park. I want you to smell it and think about that one moment when you were a child and you were like, ‘I'm so peaceful right now.’ That's what I want to smell like.That's the goal and we're gonna get there. I'm working towards it.”

Speaking to the reminder to stay fresh but true to yourself, and if any other artists are reading this, Joyce is “always open to advice.”

“I wanna sit down with some crazy people, some wizzy people. Just tell me stuff about music, about art and about life. Give me advice.