When you’re just 28, and your idols are artists like Mozart, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Janis Joplin and Paul Simon for music, and Dalì, Man Ray e Picasso for visual arts, people will probably imagine you’re not a person who should be underestimated. We are talking about Kelsey Lu, a young woman from North Carolina who is passionate for music, and who also happens to be the new face of Kenzo’s SS17 campaign. Love and religion were a strong influence during Kelsey’s childhood and teenage years, the latter was especially very relevant in her life and for her career. The McJunkins — the actual family name of this week’s WCW — are staunch Jehovah’s Witnesses, and they closely monitored all of their daughter’s educational and musical leanings from a very young age, all the way until college. After months of convincing her parents, Kelsey finally got their blessing to join the prestigious North Carolina School for the Arts, which put a little distance between her and her slightly overbearing parents.
Once she was in school, Kelsey could finally be herself, and most of all, she was free to express her inclinations — and it was also at school that she realized that the cello was her destiny. Once she was done with college, the American musician realized that the place she came from, lost somewhere in the American south, would limit her prospects for a musical career, and that her dream had already set a precise destination for her — the place to go was New York City. This is why she left her parents, with a heavy heart, and moved to the Big Apple to dedicate herself to learning her favorite instrument. Shortly after getting there, Kelsey attracted some attention for her musical skills, as well as a singer, with her light, yet deep, beautiful voice. She started with some shows in small theaters and bars, moved from Manhattan to Flatbush, Brooklyn, where she met the right people, and ended up playing as the opening act of Florence + The Machine. The real breakthrough for this almost 30-year-old artist came last year, though, with her first album “Church”, which she recorded inside some of the churches of the area. The album is a homage to her religious background, to her family, to her childhood, but also to the woman she became. And we picked her as our WCW to celebrate her future, because we are absolutely sure that she will come a long way.
All the photos are taken from Kelsey Lu Instagram profile