Syrian-Canadian, Adult Third Culture Kid (ATCK) musician J.Esho combines more than one language and musical style in his songs.
Johni Esho was born in Tel Tamer, Syria and emigrated with his family to Ontario, Canada at the age of 13.
Born into a musical family (his parents first met in a band), Esho credits his father for fostering his love of music — he started working at his father’s recording studio in Syria, and once they got to Canada, his father went into debt to buy him a guitar.
J.Esho always wants to challenge himself with singing in multiple languages, even though he may not be completely fluent in all of them.
“Honestly, it’s more easy when you sing it than when you speak it,” he tells Emmanuel Romanous on the Lazy Intellectuals podcast. “You have more time — it’s basically time, like the vowels and everything. If you just pay attention to how they’re singing it, how they’re saying it, you can pick it up really quickly.
Additionally, J.Esho realized that such a cultural integration through music “is a wild force that transcends boundaries and promotes communication between people around the world,” he tells hiamag.com. “It serves as a guide to the language of universal music, and demonstrates its ability to overcome cultural gaps and form a common sense of belonging. I am very excited to embark on this new chapter of my artistic journey, where I am dedicated to creating harmonious musical experiences that bring people together and celebrate our diverse global fabric.”
Check out his song “El Ritmo” where he sings in French, Spanish and Arabic below.
