Young, free and international: Emma Smetana and Jordan Haj
This Friday, September 16, an open-air concert at the Czech Centre in Paris will be taking place to mark Czechia’s EU council presidency, featuring popular young musicians Emma Smetana and Jordan Haj. In today’s Sunday Music show we’ll be listening to some tracks from the duo’s recently-released joint album.
Emma Smetana grew up surrounded by music – her father Jiří Smetana ran a rock club in Paris, the city where Emma lived between the ages of two and six and where she later returned to study at university. She began playing the piano at the age of six. After studying abroad in Paris and Berlin, Smetana returned to Prague in 2011, and in 2012, she started an eponymous band in which she sings and plays piano and guitar.
In March 2016, she released her debut music album 'What I've Done' featuring the single 'No Fire'. A year after the release of this album, she toured Czech railway stations together with her band and performed at stations in Cheb, Olomouc, and Prague.
Reflecting her international youth and education, Emma Smetana sings in English, French, Czech and Hebrew.
Her partner is actor and musician Jordan Haj, of Palestinian-Czech origin. He was born in Prague to a Czech mother and Palestinian father, but spent part of his childhood in Israel, where he attended a Jewish school.
The pair have two daughters together, Lennon Marlene Haj Hossein Smetana, born in 2016, and Ariel Ava Haj Hossein Smetana, born in 2021.
Their first joint album, By Now, was released at the beginning of June. In this week's edition of our Sunday Music show, we play you a selection of tracks from the album, starting with the single of the same name.
1. By Now
2. Lost And Found
3. Dream On
4. Dopamine
5. Higher
6. 5* Hell
7. Why Do You Still Like Me?
8. Bad Boys
