Hyleen
Who Is Hyleen?
Hyleen (full name Hyleen Gil) is a French singer songwriter and guitarist born in 1991 on the French coast. She is one of the most distinctive voices in French neo soul, an artist who arrived at music entirely through passion and self-teaching rather than formal training, and built a reputation through a combination of exceptional vocal talent, raw guitar work, and a set of debut album collaborators that would be the envy of any established international artist.
Her musical style is rooted in soul, funk, jazz and groove — the tradition of Erykah Badu, D’Angelo, Jill Scott and the broader American neo soul lineage — but filtered through a French sensibility that gives her work a distinctive European intimacy. She writes her own songs, plays electric guitar as her primary instrument, and performs with a directness and emotional honesty that has made her a critical favourite in the French jazz and soul press.
Self-Taught, Driven by Passion
Hyleen taught herself guitar and developed her vocal skills without formal music school training. This self taught approach gave her playing and singing a personal character that formal training sometimes irons out — the guitar lines are unconventional, the vocal delivery is raw in a way that serves the soul tradition better than technical polish would.
She began performing on the French coastal music scene before moving toward Paris, where the concentration of jazz, soul and world music venues gave her work the environment it needed to develop. Her repertoire in early performances mixed her own original compositions with covers drawn from the divas of contemporary soul — Beyoncé, Erykah Badu, Amy Winehouse — but always treated through her own filter rather than imitated.
Paris Jazz Club described her approach as “a voyage between soul, funk, jazz” — a nomadic quality in which genre boundaries are suggestions rather than constraints. This quality is central to the French neo soul tradition, which has historically been more genre-fluid than its American counterpart.
Recording with Omar, Frank McComb and Chris Dave
Hyleen’s debut mini-album was her most remarkable achievement to date. Unable to secure a physical release, the project nonetheless attracted a set of collaborators that reflected the genuine seriousness of international soul musicians’ regard for her talent. The album featured:
Soul Bag’s four star review in issue SB 217 praised the recording’s ambition and the quality of Hyleen’s vocal and guitar work in this company. The fact that artists of this caliber chose to record with a young French independent artist was itself the most eloquent statement about the quality of her music.
Live in Paris: Le Baiser Salé
Following her debut album, Hyleen performed at Le Baiser Salé, the legendary Parisian jazz club on the Rue des Lombards that has been a focal point of Paris’s jazz and soul scene since 1983. Le Baiser Salé has hosted Richard Bona, Angélique Kidjo, Sylvain Luc and dozens of the world’s finest jazz and world music artists.
In April 2015, she performed there alongside keyboardist Fred Dupont, known for his work with Charles Pasi and Nina Attal. Soul Bag’s review of the concert noted that even without the prestigious collaborators of her debut album, performing alone with a single electric guitar before being joined by Dupont, she confirmed “without any difficulty the vocal capacities she demonstrates on record” and “a presence that makes it impossible to remain indifferent to her performance.”
Paris Jazz Club listed the concert under “Hyleen Gil” with the description “voyage entre soul, funk, jazz, une nomade qui transporte le public.” The Baiser Salé performance was an important early live milestone, introducing her to the Paris jazz scene audience that had already heard her debut on record.
Hyleen’s Sound: Where French Intimacy Meets American Soul
Hyleen’s music sits in the tradition of artists who use the electric guitar as a primary solo voice in soul music — a tradition that runs from Jimi Hendrix through Prince and D’Angelo to Bilal and Gary Clark Jr. in the contemporary era. Her guitar work is not decorative but central, providing both rhythm and melody in a way that makes her stripped-down solo performances as complete as full band arrangements.
Her voice has been described as capable of moving from fragile and intimate to powerful and piercing within a single phrase — a range that serves the emotional demands of soul music, which requires both vulnerability and strength. French soul magazine Soul Bag’s four star review specifically noted her vocal consistency between recording and live performance, which is not always the case with young artists.
Hyleen: Official YouTube Channel and Spotify
Hyleen’s official YouTube channel features live performances, original compositions and studio recordings. Her Spotify profile includes her debut mini-album and subsequent releases.
