Blanche Bailly is also known as Queen Mimba – it comes from the title of her first hit Mimbayeur:
“A ‘mimbayeur’ is something like a proud person, ‘mimba’ is slang for proud, but for me when I say Queen Mimba it’s more like the queen of confidence.”
She may be one of Cameroon’s most successful female artists of the moment, with a strong-girl image and a much-admired curvy figure, but it has not always been like this. Blanche Bailly moved from Cameroon to France as a child and had a very tough time at school:
“I was facing racism and body challenges. I remember anorexia was at its peak, and I remember we could count the amount of black people in that school. I was the only girl with the biggest ass as long as I went to school”.
“You know, like, you’re very young and you have this very grown physique – and you’re in the midst of people that probably do not understand the physique. So there was already some kind of body-shaming going on for me.”
Blanche Bailly also experienced what she calls language-shaming, people calling her a “villager” because she did not speak the right kind of French:
“I was a very shy person, I didn’t like myself, so it took me a lot of time to grow into my person before I started my career. So when I started my career I think I was ready mentally that I was going to be body-shamed or criticised for so many things, so it really didn’t bother me.”
Blanche Bailly moved from France to England, where she recorded her first two songs, but it was when she decided to relocate to Cameroon that things really took off.
She reconnected with her culture and languages and began to write songs that really resonated with the public – like Ton Pied Mon Pied. It is about finding at last a lover who appreciates her not despite her flaws but because of them:
“It’s just a song to tell people that you don’t have to be perfect to find someone. Because nobody is perfect”.
“If you don’t like something about yourself and you cannot change it, you have to accept it. Because the love you have for yourself is even going to motivate and inspire people to love you. How you cherish and carry yourself is the way people are going to receive you, and value you.”
