Alex Porat: Ready for Liftoff 用作品說話：陳愛麗

ENGLISH 英 :  Deirdre Kelly + Jessica Gedge | CHINESE 中 :  Christina li 文禮
Interviewer: Jesscia Gedge

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Alex Porat is on the cusp of greatness. Raised in both Toronto and Vancouver, the 26-year-old Canadian soft pop singer-songwriter began her musical journey recording covers of hit songs in her bedroom just over a decade ago, posting them on YouTube where her crystalline voice, tremulous vulnerability and alluring physical presence quickly attracted more than a million global subscribers. A first EP — Bad at Breakups — came out in 2020. Then came a first album — Miss Sick World — in 2021, followed by the EP Kiss Face in 2022. Today, Porat is the artist other artists are getting excited about.

「音，聲也。生於心，有節於外，謂之音。」許慎《說文解字》指出音樂是內心受觸動而發出的聲音；英文「Music」一詞源於古希臘語的「Muse」，繆思女神負責掌管音樂及詩歌。音樂反映人類生活情感，糅合聲音、情感、時間。音樂沒有雅俗之分，只要它可以帶來正能量、感動他人就是好音樂。陳愛麗（Alexandra Porat），你未必聽過她的名字或嗓子，只要有緣一聽，定跟YouTube上過百萬粉絲一樣被深深吸引，她的作品是北美主流音樂世界以外的另類好聲音。

Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes publicly praised her “awesome voice” in a 2018 Glamour video after hearing her cover of his song “In My Blood.” The video went viral, effectively sparking her career. Bringing more attention her way, Malaysian pop sensation Claudia recently informed the international press that Porat is the newcomer who currently inspires her. American pop artist Tiffany Day, meanwhile, secured Porat as the opening act for her 2023 U.S. tour, fanning the flames of her growing celebrity.

This support from entertainment-world peers is starting to pay dividends. 

二十出頭的Alex是中國波蘭混血加拿大唱作歌手，嗓音甜美清新、獨特夢幻，所創作的歌曲旋律俏皮、歌詞寫實，充滿感染力。 她的音樂在YouTube上獲得超過1.57億流量、 超過110多萬訂閱，且不斷增長。 粉絲遍佈北美、歐洲和亞洲，並在Spotify 、Apple 和 Amazon上積累過億次播放。Alex的成功絕非僥倖，不一樣的生活閱歷讓她寫出觸動心靈的樂音。

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In May, Los Angeles-based Gold House, in collaboration with AEG and Spotify, selected Porat as one of three emerging artists showcased in the Gold House Futures Accelerator Program for Music, a leading talent development platform for new voices from Asian Pacific communities around the world. Closer to home, in July Porat performed at Toronto’s popular Beaches Jazz Festival. Porat is on a roll and not by accident.

“I’m always chasing the next thing — I put pressure on myself to hit goals and then aim for the next one as soon as I think I find my momentum,” she says. “Since 2012, I’ve been chasing ideas that were too big for me, but here I am. I’m a crazy manifester.”

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馬來西亞出生後不久，Alex便隨波蘭裔爸爸及華裔媽媽移居溫哥華長大，兒時夢想就是成為歌星。從小她就竭盡全力，參加大大小小的才藝表演、試鏡、海選，年少時幾乎每週六都會在家旁的本拿比麗晶廣場內的小舞台，即興卡拉OK演唱Whitney Houston、Christina Aguilera及迪士尼等名曲，累積表演經驗。高中時，Alex曾於紐約的一所K-pop音樂學院接受為期六個月的培訓課程。畢業後，回到加拿大開設個人YouTube 頻道，發表翻唱作品。「那時候，真的不知道還有什麼渠道。看到Justin Bieber的成功，便仿傚他用YouTube展示歌聲。」上傳了無數作品之後，迴響只屬一般；直到進入大學那年，翻唱了《In My Blood》，原唱者加拿大著名音樂人Shawn Mendes在《Glamour》雜誌網上平台中大讚她的嗓子、演繹及唱功。「那刻，我意識到成為一名音樂人不再是離地的夢想」Alex憶說：「突然間，我覺得繼續做音樂是真的真的可行！」那年Alex剛完成大學二年級，正猶豫應否仍繼續學業，Shawn的鼓勵給了她全職追求音樂的最大動力。

Her striving after success started early, in the home. Her parents nurtured her creativity as soon as Porat made it obvious that she had an artistic streak. “My parents would put up paper all over the walls in the house so we could create art whenever we felt like it,” she says. Music eventually caught her attention and she was “always singing.” She later attended an arts high school, then spent two years at the post-secondary level studying business and law, eventually quitting to pursue her love of singing full time. Her parents supported her all the way. Porat didn’t realize how lucky she was. “When I got older, I learned that my household was very different from that of my friends,” she says. “My parents were so lenient. They always encouraged me to just enjoy life.” But it wasn’t always easy. 

從那時起，她馬不停蹄地工作。2020年新冠期間是Alex一個轉折點，她發行了首張原創EP 《Bad at Breakups》，藉音樂描述分手後的心痛、心碎、孤獨或不安。「在這之前，我創作了很多歌曲，但大部分從未走出我的睡房，因為總覺得它們不夠好。」隨時間和歷練，Alex 開始弄清楚自己的創作理念、寫作風格，終於放心將她的音樂與世界分享。 「有一段長時間裡，我一直避免寫『太流行』的音樂，因為我怕進入一個競爭非常激烈的領域，尤其是在缺乏亞裔代表的行業。但我想通了，音樂是無界限的，只要能帶給你情感和共鳴就是好音樂。」 

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Of mixed racial heritage — dad is a European from Poland and mom a Malaysian of Chinese descent — Porat felt conflicted by her ancestry. At home she was Asian. But in the outside world she studiously kept her Chinese heritage under wraps. At school, classmates commented on how she passed for white. At other times, they hurled racist epithets, cruelly reminding her of the identity she wanted to hide. “Being half-Asian is a unique experience,” Porat reflects. “There are a lot of privileges that come with being a chameleon — you’re not easily identifiable. But there are a lot of negatives, too.” 

2021年發布的單曲《女朋友》是Alex首次公開提及自己亞裔血統及身份。在那之前，她一直淡化母親的中國背景。大多數朋友甚至不知道曾受K-pop訓練。如她所言：「家中的那個自己，就留在家裡好了。」新冠期間，北美的反亞裔仇恨讓Alex反思，並於2021年發行的專輯主打歌《Miss Sick World》中談及為融入主流社會而掩蓋自己族裔背景的衝動，歌詞寫道：「我不想為融入而成為倒模的複製品； 不，我根本不想融入 But I don’t want to fit in if I have to be a clone; No, I don’t want to fit in at all」。

She sings about that duality on Miss Sick World; the title track has been described by the CBC as “an anti-assimilation anthem.” In the song, Porat refuses to be pigeonholed or made to feel she needs to sacrifice her uniqueness to merge with the mainstream. “But I don’t want to fit in if I have to be a clone,” she sings. “No, I don’t want to fit in at all.” In a statement released with the album, Porat explained her motivation: “As a kid, I watered down who I was and my ethnicity so that I could match those around me and I’ll never do it again.”

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Her self-awakening came about during the pandemic. The anti-Asian racism and violence that raged amid the COVID-19 global health crisis had her feeling genuinely frightened and worried about her family’s safety. “It got scary when you realized it could happen to your mom,” she told the Canadian Press in 2021. The online comments on the article became a battleground. Some readers applauded her for using her growing celebrity to speak up against racially motivated hate. Others criticized her for “thinking I could speak about being Asian.” It was a defining moment. “The comments section of that article lives rent-free in my brain, but it’s a motivator,” she says. “Not saying anything is the same as being a passerby to bullying.” 

歌曲以外，Alex亦主動為自己的族裔發聲。「我在網上發表了一篇文章，內容談及亞裔仇恨，並分享了作為半個亞洲人的個人經歷，引起了一場爭論：有人為我感到自豪，也有人攻擊我。作為混血兒，『變色龍特權』令人可以隱藏真實身份。但對我來說，發聲真的很重要。我會永遠記住那次看到的留言，那是我為族裔做更多的動力，同時我感謝那些支持我的人。在這仇恨議題上，選擇沉默就等於欺凌，如果自己夠堅強，說出來是非常重要的。父母教育我必須做合乎道德的事情。這是我接受這次訪問的原因，同時，我非常感激有Fête Chinoise這個平台讓我可以暢談這個議題。」

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Some of that sentiment comes out in her songwriting. Porat bravely lays herself bare in her lyrics. Being vulnerable is a large part of her appeal. Many of her songs are about breakups, loneliness and alienation. An exemplary song is her 2023 single, “I’m Not Crying”:

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Tears running down my face, emotional

Fears in my brain, it’s irrational

Thirst for some fame

But I hate attention

Bought me two chains, some Dolce Gabbanas

Still so lame, guess I need some Prada caught those feels,
but those feels are so yuck

I’m so numb

I’m so numb

Audiences at Porat’s concerts often sing along. Connecting with listeners means so much to her. While she appreciates the convenience of communicating with fans online, Porat says that nothing beats the intimacy of a live show. Porat continues to connect even after the performance, buzzing around the merchandise table, where she chats and chums with adoring fans. 

「加拿大華人要在很特定的個別群體中找到歸屬感。感恩一班有心人如Fête Chinoise、加華青年體育會CCYAA 和 Gold House，願意站出來支持並擁護亞裔創作者。這些社區組織的存在給我安心和歸屬感，這是我在生命早期缺乏的。每個人都可以做自己的感覺真的很好，」Alex分享，在北美音樂世界，很少亞裔加拿大歌手能夠取得成功。「我知道我是誰、我的夢想是什麼，但我仍然正在尋找自己的定位及融入北美音樂世界的方案。我今天的艱難會為下一代亞裔音樂人帶來指引。」經得起歷練，也是一種幸福。

Speaking to others matters to her. She wants to use her voice to make a difference. A major ambition is to increase Asian representation in the Canadian music industry. “A lot of support for Asian artists in Canada comes from other Asian artists,” she says. “The last three artists I opened for were Asian. It’s important to me to have that network because it gives us a chance to be heard.”

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In 2024, Porat will open for pop star Eric Nam on his next world tour. The exposure will again be huge, practically ensuring that Alex Porat does become a household name. But that’s not necessarily the end goal. “I feel very grateful to be able to do this as a career,” she says, “because it’s so rewarding. It’s everything I ever wanted to do as a kid. I can’t believe I’m here.”

縱使路途崎嶇、遇到多少非議，Alex也無畏無懼，她清楚知道：「做更好的音樂、走上世界舞台、製作世界巡迴表演是我最大的理想。只要敢想，多大的夢想也不是遙不可及！只要相信，只要不放棄，一切也有可能。」熱愛音樂、熱愛夢想就是她的最大動力。

如此充滿熱誠、理想的音樂人，等待着大家發掘、聆聽、了解她那包容、和諧、快樂的樂音。她是Alex Porat陳愛麗，用作品說話。

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