ZELDA'S STORY
When she was about 13 years old, Estelle already knew she wanted to sing. One evening, while taking her shower, she was imagining herself on stage, but most of all, she started wondering how she would be introduced on stage. She could not hear "Welcome to the stage... Estelle Alais!" yet she did not know what to hear. Once she got out of the bathroom, her first sight was her brother's closed door. On that door, there was a poster... 'The Legend Of Zelda, Twilight Princess'. And it instantly clicked. 'I am Zelda.'
Besides holding a lot of meaningful memories, 'The Legend of Zelda' has also always been Estelle's favourite video game. For years, she was terrified someone would steal her stage name until she could "make it". As a symbolic gesture, her cousin - who was the only one to know Estelle wanted to sing at the time - took 'Z' and added it to 'Estelle'. Among her friends and family, 'Zestelle' became her nickname for more than a decade, sometimes even shortened to 'Zest'; without them even knowing where it really came from.
ZELDA JEANE'S TIMELINE
Circa 2006-2007
September 2019
2019-2022
April 2022
May 2nd 2022 🥀
June 2022
'Birth of Zelda'
1st March 2023
Estelle sees her brother's 'The Legend Of Zelda' wall poster when she is only 13. She instantly knows she wants 'Zelda' as her stage name - if she ever gets to use one someday.
Estelle kept 'Zelda' secret throughout her whole life for fear of someone stealing it. Only her cousin knew about it until really late. When Estelle enters BIMM London in September 2019, she decides to scrap the idea of a stage name and simply go by 'Estelle Alais'.
Throughout her degree, Estelle struggles with a massive lack of confidence, stage fright and panic attacks. The idea of officially creating an alter ego for herself isn't growing in her mind until the end of year 3 in 2022, but she starts researching about it in late 2021 when studying Rock & Metal.
Feeling quite depressed for external reasons in early 2022, Estelle decides the only way to overcome what she is going through is to 'split personalities' into a persona who is going to take over her music studies for her, while 'Estelle gets into survival mode'. One night while researching ideas and inspiration for a potential name, 'Zelda' comes back to her mind out of the blue: it instantly clicks. Estelle decides she will have an alter ego from now on.
Estelle performs with her band for a 30min set at The Half Moon (London). She finishes her set by reusing Taylor Swift's 'The old Taylor can't come to the phone right now' from 'Look What You Made Me Do', by instead screaming 'The Pop Estelle can't come to the stage right now. Why? 'Cause, she's DEAD!', marking the end of an era - and the beginning of a pop/rock one as Zelda.
After hesitating with many different surnames for two months, Estelle decides 'Jeane' is going to be Zelda's last name. It is in reference to Marilyn Monroe's real name, Norma Jeane. Estelle grew an adoration for Marilyn Monroe a few years prior (circa 2016-2017), and found similarities between herself and Marilyn Monroe.
Estelle even discovers in late June that Marilyn once used 'Zelda' as a new alter ego's name to escape her tough reality. The similarities being concerning, Estelle knows 'Zelda Jeane' is the one.
After taking months to heal 'Estelle', Zelda Jeane goes back up on stage on the 1st March to perform 'You Make Me Wanna Die' by The Pretty Reckless, which she previously performed at The Half Moon on the day of 'Zelda's Birth'.
On that day, Zelda realises she misses the stage and it is time to come back to the spotlight. After taking months for her mental health, she also came up with the idea of a 'concept album' to express all the adversities she went through since The Half Moon.
Zelda is ready to take her career to a brand new level with her visuals, art, poems, lyrics, music and sparkly yet dark imagination. Her aim is to heal herself while helping others heal too.
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