Music for Babies #2: Anthony Cheylan
“Music For Babies” is a collection of interviews exploring how music can strengthen the bond between Parents and their babies.
Anthony Cheylan is an editorial, communications, digital, and marketing expert with 18-year expertise in the entertainment and tech industries. Former Head of content at our beloved french channel Clique.TV
Anthony and his son Leo
Can you tell us a bit more about you and your little family?
I’m passionate about Hip-hop and culture in general.
From 2016 to 2022, I was the editor-in-chief/director of content of a French TV channel called Clique TV.
When my wife and I had our son Léo 18 months ago, we decided to spend more time together. So I resigned and started to work as a freelance consultant for music labels, media, and companies.
We live near Paris, France.
How did you incorporate music into your daily routine with your newborn?
Since his birth, our son is crazy about music. It is continuously playing in our home, except during meals. I’ve created a playlist of all the tracks he likes; we listen to it in the morning when he wakes up, and in the evening when he plays before dinner.
Once or twice a week, he requests to listen to vinyls, as he seems to like to watch the whole process of playing a record on a turntable. It also seems to make him more attentive to the tracks.
Another one of his favorite activities is playing with musical books ; we comment and use them to make him discover other songs or artists.
And during bath time, we play Spotify’s « Peaceful piano » playlist and the Lullabeats LPs to prepare him for going to bed afterwards.
Do you remember your baby's first favorite songs?
Definitely. During my wife’s pregnancy, our baby would move in her belly to the sounds of « Sunny » by Bobby Hebb, Clara Luciani’s « Coeur » LP, Michael Jackson’s « Thriller » LP, Burna Boy’s « Ye » and Rema’s « Woman » singles.
For the past 10 months, he’s been obsessed with « Dancing on my own » by Robyn. As soon as he hears the first notes, he smiles, jumps on his feet and starts « spinning around in circles » - just like she sings in the lyrics.
Did you use music or sounds to put your baby to sleep?
We tried a little bit of everything. We sang French lullabies, we used white noise, we played compilations of traditional Asian lullabies. My wife even sang nursery rhymes to him in sign language.
Now we use a French screenless device called Morphée, which plays relaxing music. It’s part of his daily sleeping ritual, he needs to hear this music to fall asleep.
Anthony Cheylan : Instagram