Petite Meller

Syvan Meller known professionally as Petite Meller , is a French-Israeli singer, songwriter and model based in Los Angeles. Her debut album, Lil Empire, was released on 9 September 2016. Meller's work is heavily influenced by philosophy, cinema, visual fashion artistry, Graceland by Paul Simon and her grandmother.

Early life Meller was born in Paris, France, and relocated to Tel Aviv when she was 11. Growing up, she split her time between Israel and Paris, where she would stay with her grandmother.

Meller grew up listening to jazz and African artists such as Fela Kuti. The first time she performed onstage was at a summer vacation Club Med contest in the south of France where she came second and won a pink milkshake. When Meller was young she would write songs and record them on a tape deck. At age seven, Meller and a boy she had a crush on, recorded a song together in a restroom to capture the sound of the water. After leaving the band, Meller moved to Brooklyn, New York to seek out her own sound in 2012. Speaking of her departure from Terry Poison, Meller said that the decision to leave left her "liberated" and filled with "feminine power." During her time with Terry Poison, the band released a self-titled debut album, with Meller assisting with writing and composing as well as performing vocals throughout the album.

In 2014, Meller moved to London after meeting her manager.

In 2015, Meller signed a record deal with Island Records UK and Island Records US, plus a publishing deal with Warner/Chappell Music US.

Her 2015 single "Baby Love" peaked at #30 on the UK Singles Chart. Meller performed at Reading and Leeds and Latitude Festival in 2015.

Her debut album, Lil Empire, was released on 9 September 2016.

In 2020, with the release of "Dying Out of Love", Mellor stepped into a new genre of music she called "Ork Pop" (orchestral pop). Her upcoming album will include a song written for her by Diane Warren and will include music from the Moscow Royal Orchestra. Vein, S, Irk, ELLE Belgium and Harpers Bazaar Vietnam.

Artistry In publications Meller is portrayed as a French singer, even though she herself defines herself as a citizen of the world. She has stated that her music is "not very connected to reality", and she describes her music as "nouveau jazzy pop".

Meller is known to use her philosophy studies as inspiration woven into her songs and videos as well as cinematic homages. When speaking to Paper Magazine about her artistic mission, Meller referenced Stephen Hawking's theory and said there's "a multiplicity of realities at the same time. In my videos I create my small realities, because I believe we have to take all the desires and the fantasies and expose them. To bring the unconscious life to reality: that's what I like".

Image is a big part of Meller's persona and uses her ear as a compass that leads to her aesthetic. When listening to recordings of her songs, she stated that she has clear visions of where to go to shoot the video, the colours and the story.

Video clips Video clips for her music are much of Meller's expression as an artist. Meller works almost exclusively with director and architect Asaf Tennessee Mann and Mexican director, Napoleon Habeica to encapsulate her unique aesthetic style. Before filming a video, Meller arrives at least a week in advance to scout for local characters to cast and include in her destiny premise.

The 2014 video for 'NYC Time' was directed by A.T. Mann and Napoleon Habeica and features Meller being carried by her friend, Justin Elephant through New York, a forest and other settings.

The video for 'Baby Love' was filmed in Kenya inspired by broken hearted school girls dancing their pain away. Its colonial aesthetic divided opinion as Meller danced in scanty costumes alongside locals and giraffes which drew some questions about if it was unsettling that such a community was being used as "video meat" as The Evening Standard reported. When questioned about how the community were compensated, Meller stated that the record company paid the community, furnished their dance school with mirrors and gave computers to the school.

Barbaric's video is shot in a retirement home in Miami with the actual residents. Meller was inspired because she spent a lot of her youth with her grandparents as her parents were often too busy. She calls the video a kind of closure for her grandma. Special permission needed to be granted by scientists for Meller to be allowed to swim in famous pink lake in Senegal, and in return she was required to provide a sample of the water.

The 2020 released video for 'Dying Out of Love', used a patchwork of user generated videos from Instagram fans created during the pandemic. It was written in collaboration with Andreas Soderlund (Hyena), who wrote the tune for his wedding. Mellor heard the song and added the lyrics about the pain of her relationship break-up that occurred during the early days of the pandemic. Meller felt like she was underwater during the separation so incorporated that by filming in a swimming pool.

Personal life

Meller studied postgraduate philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and the University of Tel Aviv where her thesis was about the sublime and psychosis, inspired by the works of Schiller and Kant. She undertook a PhD in philosophy at UCLA which she stated helps her to understand how everything affects her lyrics about dying and psychosis.

Meller believes in fateful encounters based on seeking help from the universe. She recounts numerous people whom she has met at the right time through coincidental situations. One such person was her manager who discovered her when he was searching the internet to find the local time in New York, but instead found himself watching her video for NYC Time. He subsequently approached her, moved her to London and helped her secure a record deal with Island. however The Evening Standard pointed to a video of Meller singing in 2007 with Terry Poison, which by the Financial Times' reporting would have made her just 12 years old at the time leading to some confusion. Mellers' birthday is July 14th however she strives to keep her year of birth a secret. Label: Self-released Format: Digital download, streaming

Released: 28 October 2019 Label: Self-released Format: Digital download, streaming

Released: 18 November 2020 Label: Self-released Format: Digital download, streaming

Awards and nominations