Wellingborough musician’s ‘really special’ experience as song features on Lancome advert with Zendaya, Aya Nakamura and Amanda Seyfried

A new advert for French cosmetics company Lancome headed up by Hollywood stars and a fellow music artist features music from Wellingborough musician House of El.

Kieron McIntosh, stage name House of El’s, track ‘Elijah’ is layered over the advert that features actresses Zendaya and Amanda Seyfried, and jazz/soul singer Aya Nakamura, which was shot in the Louvre museum in Paris.

He wrote ‘Elijah’ in 2016, but it was ‘on ice’ for a while, so by the time he put it out it was a few years later, and now it’s reached a whole new audience.

Kieron said: “It perfectly fits what I’m about as an artist.

“Artists do a lot of brand stuff but I’m trying to build something with integrity, so maybe I wouldn’t want to use that song on other adverts but this was something I felt was really special.

“I always wanted to build a project that had something different about it and integrity.

“It’s one of those songs that I think maybe doesn’t connect immediately for a streaming audience but for movies and adverts I always saw it working in that area.”

Kieron is Wellingborough ‘born and bred’, but has previously lived in Paris for a year while studying, and remembers spending time in the museum, immediately recognising its opening area in the video.

He added: “You’d get free tickets as a student so if I had literally half an hour I’d run into the Louvre and just wander around, so I got really accustomed to that space.

“I just really like the concept and I was so happy to be a part of it.

“It was something that really worked from a creative perspective, and it honoured the Louvre, a space that’s really important for the French, and really honoured the music. They used it and put it together so well, it was a great moment.”

The song is used in Lancome’s ad campaign for its collaboration with the Louvre, with Zendaya (Euphoria, Dune, Spider-Man), Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia, Les Miserables) and Aya Nakamura, a brand ambassador for the company.

Kieron was largely in the dark about what the brand was planning behind the scenes, but was happy with the first iteration of the video. The final version has been viewed by almost 50,000 people on the company’s YouTube channel.

Kieron started out as a jazz trumpeter, and has honed his craft to be a multi-instrumentalist, creating songs that blur the lines between jazz, hip hop and soul music.

He’s been a part of Radio 1’s Big Weekend, performed at Glastonbury and toured with London artists Plan B and Labrinth, and features as a writer on Becky Hill’s upcoming album Believe Me Now?

His future is bright, but equally busy, as House of El intends to release two new projects this year, with more, as-yet undisclosed announcements planned.