Singer-songwriter Isabel Usher (23) broke through on TikTok with Englishversions of well-known Dutch songs, and vice versa. her song I ‘m Coming HomeAgain about Amsterdam went viral among Ajax fans. Now there is a new version,for the whole of the Netherlands.
Sara LuijtersOctober 21, 202215:00
‘I’ll be back, I’ll be home again, because nothing is more beautiful than theAlbert Cuyp. I miss the light and sounds of the crowded streets of myAmsterdam. And I’ve been gone too long, I saw the world but still it remainedempty. So I’m coming home again, I know it took a long time, I never want toleave Amsterdam.’
With these lines, singer and lyricist Isabel Usher conquered the hearts ofmany Amsterdammers via TikTok this year. “I was walking in the supermarket andheard the song Coming Home by P. Diddy and Skylar Grey, my brain hit itright away. At home I wrote this text about Amsterdam in one go, I recordedthe song and posted it on my TikTok account. The song immediately went viral.”
The whole verse is only thirty seconds long, but it stirs up a lot ofemotions. “Ajax fans in particular put the song under football videos and theF-Side shared my clip via their social media channels. I even got all kinds ofmessages and voice memos from F-Siders asking me if I didn’t want to make asong specifically about Ajax. And on the terrace I was recognized by a girl.She told me that her father, a true Amsterdammer, is seriously ill. She hadshared the song in the family group app and everyone was emotional. The factthat I can touch people with my music is the best compliment I can receive asa songwriter.”
Rotterdam on request
After the song about Amsterdam, Usher also made a song especially forRotterdam and Groningen. “It was never my intention to make multiple versions,but I got so many requests from people from other cities that I did it anyway.The version about Rotterdam did not go down well with all Amsterdammers, Iunderstood that afterwards. “How could you do that?” Amsterdammers asked me.Other people reacted angrily to the songs because I’m not from those citiesmyself; I was born in England and grew up in Drenthe.”
With the idea to please everyone, she released a very last version, this timefor the whole country. “In the text I pay tribute to the Netherlands by JohanCruijff and Clarence Seedorf, by Peter R. de Vries, Ronnie Flex and Frenna.From Febo and Albert Heijn, saoto soup and speculaas.”
“It didn’t have to become a sweet song, I also mention the imperfect things ofthe Netherlands. Like that there is room here for everyone, but only if itsuits us. It is often the less pleasant things that you miss when you are farfrom home, so in my song in addition to all the beautiful things, it is alsoabout full trams, gray skies and sheltering from the showers, standing intraffic for hours and stolen bicycles .”
Bizarre experience
Usher started writing lyrics after graduating. “For my profile assignment Imade a film with a few friends about a girl with anorexia. I wrote the titlesong, a sensitive song, which I sang myself. That tasted like more, a teacheralso urged me to continue writing lyrics. When I was seventeen, I sent all themajor music labels a confident email offering myself as a songwriter andsinger. I could write and sing a dance track: Droeloe from Sunburn. The songbecame a hit in Asia, a bizarre experience.”
After HAVO, Usher hesitated between studying at the Herman Brood Academy andthe Communication and Multimedia Design course. “I chose the latter because Iwas afraid that I would lose the fun and originality as a lyricist during amusic course.”
Still, writing and singing did not let her go. When she suddenly had seas oftime during the corona pandemic, she decided to fully immerse herself inmusic. Usher again emailed managers of artists she wanted to work with, fromDavid Guetta to Martin Garrix. But the ball really started rolling when shedecided to approach the managers of Dutch artists. “I was soon allowed intothe studio. I wrote Stranger To Me for Sigourney K and Solo for Zoe Tauranand Bilal Wahib.” Both songs went gold and platinum and put both the artistsand Usher on the map.
Own sauce
“The more I wrote for others, the more I felt the need to start singing my ownsongs,” says Usher. “I find performing and the spotlight quite scary, but Inoticed that I also started to regret giving away my own sauce to others.”That ‘own sauce’ consists of emotionally tinted lyrics in which Usher playswith language. The rhyme schemes are inspired by the hip-hop tracks she’s beenlistening to since childhood.
Usher breaks through as a solo artist when she starts with her owninterpretations of existing hits. The very first song she records in herapartment and shares on TikTok is an English-language version of stardust_from The Youth of Today; it instantly gets her thousands of views. In thecomments Faberyayo even responds to the song: where is the translation of hisverse? “The song I recorded afterwards was a Dutch translation by Stromaes_papaoutai , it went viral instantly. Then I knew that this is what I want tocontinue to do for the time being.”
One hundred thousand followers
Usher now has 100,000 followers on TikTok and her songs are viewed andlistened to millions of times. It also gives her other work, such as writing asong for a movie on the Amazon Prime streaming channel. “I skip the offers towork with an anti-pimple cream or a teeth whitener, something has to reallysuit me. But when a great brand like Adidas calls me, I certainly don’t sayno.”
This summer she brought Sucker for Fame off, based on Suck for love fromThe Opposites: “They are my number one inspiration when it comes to Dutch hiphop. That both The Opposites and Mr. Probz have let me know that they arebehind my version of their song, I consider it a huge honor.”
That Usher’s version of I ‘m Coming Home Again about the Netherlands rightnow is no coincidence. “The World Cup starts in Qatar on November 20. I hopethis song also goes viral, just like my songs about the cities, and that itgets picked up on the radio and through social media just as well. How greatwould it be if football fans would sing it along in the stands during thematches of the Dutch national team!”