NPR: The Austin 100: Madame Gandhi

By Stephen Thompson for NPR

Madame Gandhi.
Courtesy of the artist

Hometown: Los Angeles, California

Genre: Electronic

Why We’re Excited: Madame Gandhi doesn’t exactly make her intentions a mystery: The hyphen-rich vocalist-percussionist-speaker-producer-activist’s vibe isn’t so much “singer-songwriter” as “icon of empowerment.” Her frenetic odes to feminism, fluidity and freedom — carried off with the assistance of an entirely female or nonbinary band — mash together fragments of electro-pop, trap, Afrobeat and R&B, carried off with endless swagger.

Listen to Madame Gandhi’s “Top Knot Turn Up”