A New Discovery: Nilüfer Yanya

I was surprised when I heard the Pixies song "Hey" on the radio the other day. I was surprised because even though I liked the song very much I had never listened to a cover version of it. There are a lot of Pixies covers around, especially of the song "Where is my mind?" by great bands like Placebo, Kings of Leon and Milky Chance. But hey, "Hey" was just as good as any of them.
So thanks to technology, immediately shazamed the song and boom, another surprise. The singer had a Turkish name whom I had never heard of. Just a finger slide to Google and began typing...

Nilüfer YANYA:

She is a young singer/songwriter Londoner coming from a family with Turkish, Irish and Bajan roots. She has played classical piano but picked up guitar in her teens in order to write songs. Since childhood she was into indie rock thanks to her elder sister. As far as I could research she went to Pimlico School in Westminister London, known for its good musical education. There she had the opportunity to take guitar lessons from Dave Okumu, the singer and guitarist of the band "Invisible".

Determined to pursue music, she took weekend classes to keep pushing herself as an artist. She started performing at 18, the same year she released debut single “Waves,” which she made for a college project. Rejected twice from a popular music degree, she took an artist development course and steadily graduated from the city’s open-mic scene to cooler stages, eventually headlining her own shows.

"Thanks 4 Nothing"

She and her sister started an organization called Artists in Transit, doing creative work with refugees in Greece. They went to refugee camps in Athens along with their friends to help out with work and food distribution, as well as art classes, sports and games. I have read that she is very interested and engaged in politics as well which is a trait not so common with the Millennials.

"Hey" by Nilüfer Yanya with Jazzi on sax

Her music sounds somewhere between pop, R&B and jazz with a lesser choice of instrumentation of guitar, saxophone, drums and her mellow voice. Her silence in the songs are as powerful as her music. I suggest you also listen to the lyrics that I find quite impressive.

"Small Crimes" by Nilüfer Yanya

So far she issued three EPs, "Small Crimes", "Plant Feed" and "Do You Like Pain?". She will be in Istanbul on April 25th for a gig. I say don't miss her...

"The Florist" from the EP "Plant Feed"