Heidi Boualili is at the peak of her powers
Debut albums from young artists can often feel like auditions — a collection of promising moments searching for a coherent identity. Southend’s Heidi Boualili sidesteps that trap entirely. What I Didn’t Know Then, arrives fully formed, the kind of record that makes you wonder how it took this long for the wider world to catch up.
Boualili is twenty-three, but she writes and sings like someone who has already lived several lives. Raised on the lyricism of Lauryn Hill and Biggie Smalls, she absorbed Hip-Hop’s storytelling discipline early, and it shows — these aren’t vague emotional gestures but specific, grounded observations about class, identity, and the particular loneliness of not fitting neatly into any one box. Her Arabic and British heritage, her working-class Essex upbringing, her experience as an openly LGBTQ+ artist — feels highly authentic. It’s just the material, worn naturally.
“City U Took From Me” is the kind of track that announces an artist properly — specific enough to feel personal, open enough to feel shared. “Un Poco Loco (All the Time)” has a restless, kinetic energy that showcases her range beyond the quieter, more introspective moments. And threading a reimagined “Isn’t She Lovely” through the album as a dedication to the women in her life is a genuinely smart curatorial decision, shifting a familiar song into something more intimate and purposeful.
What carries everything, ultimately, is her voice. Commanding without being showy, emotionally direct without tipping into melodrama — it’s the kind of instrument that makes you stop what you’re doing and actually listen.
What I Didn’t Know Then announces an artist worth following closely.
8.1 / 10
Connect with Heidi Boualili: Instagram | TikTok
Read our new interview with Anene
