5 upcoming female artists to keep an eye on - #6

Their names are Kara Marni, Adeline, Stephanie Poetri, Joyce Wrice, Hu and we're sure you'll be hearing a lot about them in 2021. They have diverse backgrounds and a personal fashion sense which reflects not only their aesthetic taste, but also their age and sound. They love 90's R&B, electronic music and talk about love, empowerment and the struggle of growing up and finding a voice. 

Kara Marni

Sometimes a period of stop and difficulties turns into an opportunity to express creativity, resulting in interesting projects. This is what happened to Kara Marni, a young talent, who has just presented the visual of Trippin, a video with space vibes where the singer wears a sparkling golden look.

Trippin is very much about that honeymoon period of a relationship, inspired by a guy I met just before to lockdown. - said Kara explaining the inspiration for the new single that will be part of her third EP due out next spring - I’d always wanted to try and rework Amerie’s tune 1 Thing, and as it described a similar situation I wanted to talk about in this song, it felt like the perfect thing to do! Hope you all love it as much as I do!

Born in London around 20 years ago, Kara has emerged since Love Just Ain't Enough, her first EP released in May 2018, for her powerful voice, combining soul, R&B and pop with lyrics that talk - through a fresh and universal perspective given by her young age - about love, sex, discrimination and emancipation. Her dream is to collaborate with Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars, and in the meantime, she has been the opening act for Lewis Capaldi and Rita Ora, participated in Glastonbury, worked with brands like Tommy Hilfiger or Napapijri and launched the hit Young Heart with the American rapper Russ.

Adeline

Beautiful, talented and chic. There are many reasons to fall in love with Adeline Michèle aka Adeline (pronounced ad-uh-leen). Born in the suburbs of Paris into a family of Caribbean origin where music was part of the DNA, she grew up listening to Stevie Wonder, Donna Summer, Aretha Franklin, Prince, but had to fly to Brooklyn to find the right place to develop and make her music known. Many people probably noticed her playing bass in CeeLo Green's live shows, but the multi-instrumentalist was also the frontwoman of the nu-disco band Escort for a decade, and in 2018 she released an EP as a solo artist called just Adeline.  Her singles Emerald, Before, the ballad Twilight and the disco track After Midnight have attracted positive attention, which, from Rolling Stone to Vogue, praised not only her powerful voice, but also her funky bass and personal style. So much so that someone compared her groove-soul to that of Anderson.Paak and her voice to that of Erykah Badu. In one of her most famous images, taken at the 2018 Afropunk Festival, the musician sports a black and white striped jumpsuit with a 70s mood, with golden glitter eye shadow and with a lots of multicolored hairpins, a hairstyle similar to the one chosen for the cover of her new EP Intérimes. A tip? Scroll through Adeline's IG profile and fall in love with both her aesthetic sensibility and her music.

Hu

Federica Ferracuti aka Hu was born in 1994 and started studying jazz guitar and improvisation techniques when she was only 12 years old. During the following years she experimented with piano, bass and cello, before graduating from the Rossini Conservatory in Pesaro and discovering a love for electronic music. Her electro-pop sets led her in 2018 to record guitars and co-produce a rockabilly track for Chiara Ferragni's summer collection and to participate in the Jager Music Lab project that offered 9 days in Berlin to take master classes with some of the best DJs in the world. Following the release of her first single Neon in June 2020, Hu, who is part of the Warner Music Italy roster, reached the finalists of Sanremo Giovani 2021 with Occhi Niagara, a ballad combining romantic lyrics and electro sound. In the lyrics of the song, happiness means also sharing everyday life. Words and music are mixed like this:

Ma vorrei due mazzi di chiave per la stessa porta/dividere il caffè e anche la doccia/ho fatto un salto nel vuoto nei tuoi occhi Niagara/il tuo nome è ma io ti chiamo casa/Ma faccio schifo su un divano con l’hendricks in mano/lascio tutto al caso, faccio tutto a caso/e poi arrivi tu con gli occhi Niagara/dove vorrei solo fare una nuotata/Niagara

Fun fact: Hu, Federica's stage name, refers to the Egyptian goddess "not personified and gender-fluid who gave men the faculty of thought and speech: the matrix that generates art".

Stephanie Poetri

Despite her mother is the Indonesian pop diva Titi DJ, for Stephanie Poetri success came almost by accident. A couple of years ago, she asked her followers for suggestions to write an original song. Someone suggested a scene from Avengers: Endgame in which Tony Stark talks to his daughter Morgan. Thus was born I Love You 3000, a hit song that reached the Spotify's Global Viral 50 for weeks and collected more than 50 million views on YouTube: 

Baby, take my hand/I want you to be my husband/'Cause you're my Iron Man/And I love you 3000/Baby, take a chance/'Cause I want this to be something/Straight out of a Hollywood movie

In the last few days the singer has released How We Used To, the second single from her upcoming EP AM : PM. In the video, while exploring a surreal dream full of cosmic inspirations and Euphoria-style glitter make-up, Stephanie sings about the big changes in her life and the difficulties of crossing half the world (from Indonesia to the States) to pursue her artistic career. 

How We Used To was the very first song that I wrote after I moved to the US to pursue my career as an artist. - Poetri said - I was feeling so many emotions, all positive but when I had the time to slow down, sit down and write I was able to process my hesitations and doubts at the time - emotions outside of this crazy excitement and adrenaline. It was a lot to take in, and I was moving halfway across the world away from home and so many loved ones to pursue my passion, dreams and career. I wouldn’t change anything for the world and am so lucky in so many ways to have had the opportunities I have, but I look back on this song fondly as it helped me understand my full range of emotions with a big step in my life.

Joyce Wrice 

Joyce Wrice grew up in Southern California listening to 90's R&B hits by Mariah Carey, Luther Vandross, Usher, Missy Elliott and Brandy, dreaming of one day being as successful as her idols. So she soon began posting a series of videos on YouTube showcasing her talent and powerful voice, until in 2016 she released her first EP titled Stay Around. Her personal Japanese and African-American background allows her to incorporate elements of both of her cultures into her work, makes her unique and goes perfectly with her "sweet sexy cool" sound. Her latest song So So Sick, which anticipates her debut album due out in 2021, mixes nostalgia, 90's style and a hint of women empowerment, as Joyce herself tells explaining the idea behind the song:

Most of the songs come from my personal experiences and at the time I was feeling really hurt and down about a dude I really liked but he only wanted me at his own convenience. I was sick of giving him the power to control me emotionally and was ready to move on despite how hard it may be. So writing this song was my therapy where I realized my worth and how he's missing out on a great woman.