SYRA

Syra’s unique take on R&B and neo-soul makes you feel like you’re having a late night chat with a friend desperate to get something off their chest. Yet even though her songs are deeply introspective, they maintain an otherworldly glow, with the vibrant production channelling the celestial funk of Syra’s hero Erykah Badu just as clearly as the nocturnal romanticism of a late night bike ride towards a lover’s house. Born in Paris to a Senegalese father and a Malian mother, Syra was raised on a steady diet of Oumou Sangare and Fela Kuti records, but it was the glitz and glamour of US pop sirens like Beyonce and Rihanna that truly spoke to her soul. Of her time growing up in a tower block on Paris’ 19th ward, she reflects: “I was always different from my classmates.  “I’d wear these baggy clothes and look like a Harlem girl so the other kids would call me “Le American”. I would visit my brother a lot, who was half American, so he exposed me a lot to US culture. I do sing in French but the reason I primarily sing in English is because it reminds me of all those American R&B goddesses I used to look up to.”