With his honey sweet vocals and infectious, laid-back arrangements, singer-songwriter Houssein is quickly climbing the pop ladder. It began at six years of age for the precocious talent, who found an inherent passion for performance come to life after his father bought him his first drum kit. Come age nine, Houssein was already taking on professional gigs with Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’s UK Tour, all leading up to the moment where he would become a big-time sensation on the popular Musical.ly app. Other than exemplifying viral pop artists as the scene’s current crème de la crème, Houssein is also using his platform to engage in philanthropy, becoming a notable advocate against animal cruelty.
His latest single, “Walking Away”, is a charming, relaxed number that deals with some universally relatable truths. As Houssein tells PopMatters, “‘Walking Away’ is about not facing the inherent issues of a relationship head-on, but instead avoiding them to the point where it leads to the girl wanting to end it. Sometimes it’s a lot easier to leave our problems on the back burner, but in the long-term, it can create even bigger issues.”
Some of the natural appeal which the single’s music video exudes comes in the form of how the visual experience matches the breezy and fun step of the music, despite what could have been translated as a relatively weighty subject matter. Doubling down on a particular moment that happens in the piece, Houssein states, “In the video, a picture frame gets thrown at me, whilst in a bear costume, and the corner hits me right in the head—it didn’t feel good. Also, the bear costume was far too hot, I felt like I was going to pass out from wearing it after about three minutes.”