With her new single ‘Nimbus’, Belgian-Dutch songwriter and producer Elis Floreen unleashes a storm that has been quietly brewing for years. The track grew out of feelings of loneliness and powerlessness in a polarized world, and from a deep disappointment in the leaders who are supposed to protect the most vulnerable. “It seemed like protection was only available to the lucky few,” she reflects. “And it became clear to me that society did not hold space for a woman’s anger.”
Floreen began writing ‘Nimbus’ in 2018, imagining a child turning into a massive thundercloud, a force too big to ignore, holding a difficult conversation with mankind. At the time, she worried that the song’s meaning would lose momentum. (Spoiler: it did not.) Year after year, her rage only grew stronger as injustice, inequality, climate crisis and needless war kept shaping the world. ‘Nimbus’ is both a release of rage and an exploration of what it means to speak up in an environment that rewards silence.
Musically, the song draws energy from Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting and Michael Jackson’s They Don’t Care About Us, while also nodding playfully to the lush string arrangements of early 2000s pop. “I always wanted to write strings like in Sean Paul’s ‘Give It Up To Me’,” she adds with a grin. Just like the lyrics, the music is a push-and-pull between acoustic and electronic elements, shaped together with producer Petter Eldh. The final production, beautifully brought to life by Jo Francken and Pieterjan Maertens, elevates the track into something both intimate and overwhelming.
Elis Floreen grew up in the Belgian village of Eksel and started out as a classical pianist before developing her songwriting craft. After several years in Copenhagen, immersed in an international creative community, she sharpened her style into a colourful blend of influences, from modern alt-pop to folk, jazz and electronic music. In 2024 she was a finalist in Studio Brussel’s De Nieuwe Lichting, and her debut album The House will be released in 2026.
