Yseult's Now or Never is a love letter to survival

Yseult released Now or Never on 29 May, and she calls it her biggest solo debut yet. It is a pop-rock anthem, big and unguarded, the kind of song built to be played loud. What it stands for, she said herself.

A love letter to the legendary queens and divas who made beauty out of survival, and found freedom under city lights.

That is how she described the video, and it is the clearest read on the song too. Yseult is a French artist who is powerful and vulnerable at the same time, and here she uses that voice to push back. Survival turned into beauty, not in spite of the struggle but because of it. Freedom under city lights, claimed rather than asked for.

The sound matches the statement. The FADER placed it in Tina Turner-era pop-rock territory, and that is the right room: a voice out front, the band turned up, no hiding. It is a long way from a whispered ballad, and that is the point. A song about endurance should sound like it can take a hit and keep going.

We filmed Yseult ourselves, and the footage is slow motion. That choice suits a song like this. Slowing it down lets you sit in the held notes and the weight she carries on stage, the small movements you miss at full speed. A track about making beauty out of survival, frame by frame.

Now or Never is out now. Stream it, then do the old thing and watch the video too.