Hit Songwriter Bibi Bourelly Empowers Students through Authenticity

Twenty-one-year-old hit songwriter and artist Bibi Bourelly, who has written for Rihanna and Selena Gomez, brings refreshing and inspiring perspective to Berklee students.

September 8, 2016

With a new EP titled Free the Real (Pt. 1), it was no surprise that 21-year-old artist and hit songwriter Bibi Bourelly brought a refreshing and insightful "realness" to her talk with Berklee students at the Learning Center on the first day of the fall 2016 semester. Bourelly is the writer behind hit songs for artists such as Rihanna and Selena Gomez, and has toured in support of both indie pop trio Haim and Rihanna in the last year. She is currently headlining a tour across America in support of her EP, and she made a stop by Berklee before her recent show at the Brighton Music Hall.

Bourelly immediately made an impression on the students, half of which were in their first semester at Berklee, by responding to every question with unapologetic transparency. Bourelly explained that she went from being a failing high school student who wanted to attend Berklee to being in the same room writing with the biggest pop stars in the world four months later. However, her journey to that point was far from easy, and she attributes her outlook on life and the content of her songs to the pain she experienced early on.

“I grew up in Berlin, and my mom had cancer and passed away when I was 6 years old," Bourelly explained. "Something so real happening at that young of an age taught me how life worked. With bad comes good and with good comes bad.” With additional pressures at school and at home, Bourelly was pushed into forging a determination that led to her current success.

“I just didn’t have a plan B," Bourelly elaborated. "I had no other option but to be successful. I did not have the grades, and I did not have support."

Bourelly added, "There isn’t a recipe for this. You have to have persistence and discipline and fire. I’ve been told 'no' every day of my life since I was in the second grade, but I had to be consistent in my belief, and I had to be determined to persevere.”

Bourelly left a powerful impresson on the students, encouraging each one of them to "free the real" and be their genuine self.