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Bonjay On World Cafe

Bonjay's debut full-length album, Lush Life, is a love letter to the swirl of cities and the people they bring together. It's what happens when strangers clink glasses on rooftops and collide in bike lanes and offer each other seats on subways and sweat it out in basements blaring dancehall.

Bonjay is a duo – Alanna Stuart and Ian Swain — and even their origin story depends on eclectic interest and urban kismet. They met in the attic of an Italian restaurant in Chinatown in Ottawa. He was DJ'ing, she was an aspiring R&B singer. And they came together over the Bugz in the Attic version of "Zombie" by Fela Kuti. Swain is an urban economist when he is not DJ'ing. Stuart's parents immigrated to Canada from the Caribbean, and shared her house growing up with foster children from El Salvador and Brazil, as well as Inuit children. Swain and Stuart share stories from their unique backgrounds, reflect on what it really means to "belong" and perform live.

Hear the complete session in the player above.

Copyright 2018 XPN

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.