While her Croydon school friends were absorbed in the homegrown grime and hip-hop of their local neighbourhood, Sabiyha was raiding her Guyanese father’s diverse record collection to discover delta blues.
The 19-year-old singer songwriter is not ashamed to admit she spent most of her teenage years gathering the building blocks for her own sound, drawing on influences as diverse as urban soul, reggae, folk and blues, oblivious to the popular music around her.
She is now ready to fledge with a voice that is warm and rich like Bessie Smith or Janis Joplin, while her melodies carry the sweet country lilt of Tammy Wynette.
Although she only has a small arsenal of tracks ready to play to the world, Sabihya has already caught the attention of BBC 1Xtra’s Twin B and 6 Music’s Tom Robinson, with the latter selecting her track Queen for a top five chart of new music he curated for the airwaves.
A couple of weeks ago we tracked her down after she’d played the opening slot at the London Folkfest 2013 to film her in action. Below you can watch her perform the track Mother Knows Best exclusively for M.
The 19-year-old singer songwriter is not ashamed to admit she spent most of her teenage years gathering the building blocks for her own sound, drawing on influences as diverse as urban soul, reggae, folk and blues, oblivious to the popular music around her.
She is now ready to fledge with a voice that is warm and rich like Bessie Smith or Janis Joplin, while her melodies carry the sweet country lilt of Tammy Wynette.
Although she only has a small arsenal of tracks ready to play to the world, Sabihya has already caught the attention of BBC 1Xtra’s Twin B and 6 Music’s Tom Robinson, with the latter selecting her track Queen for a top five chart of new music he curated for the airwaves.
A couple of weeks ago we tracked her down after she’d played the opening slot at the London Folkfest 2013 to film her in action. Below you can watch her perform the track Mother Knows Best exclusively for M.
