Shay Lia Talks About A New Journey Within Her Music, Her Love For Dance & Future Plans [Interview]

Embarking on a brand-new journey Djiboutian French native and R’n’B songstress Shay Lia returns to the scene after a two-year hiatus with energetic single ‘Takutá’, the track is vibrant and fun while exhibiting Shay’s bilingual abilities to sing in both English and French. Shay’s soothing tone sits seamlessly on this up-tempo record that has the high spirit of a voguing anthem, all while embracing her East African heritage.

Shay Lia has come a long way from dancing alongside Grammy Award-winning DJ and producer Kaytranada, the songstress has worked with an array of artists including Kojey Radical, Buddy, and BADNOTGOOD. Over the last couple of years, Shay Lia has become best known for tracks ‘What’s Your Problem?’, ’All Up To You’, ‘Irrational’ feat Adekunle Gold, and assisting her vocals on tracks like ‘Leave Me Alone’ and ‘Chances’.

Embracing her energetic comeback ‘Takutá’ is accompanied by an impressive set of visuals that pay homage to her infamous Boiler Room dance moves during Kaytranada’s iconic DJ set. Despite taking place almost a decade ago, the video of Shay Lia has wholesomely resurfaced online, allowing fans past and present to witness a new chapter in Shay Lia’s life.

We’ve been following you since the release of ‘What's Your Problem?’, talk me through your journey, did you always want to become a musician?

Yeah, I mean, I always loved music, I was pretty much obsessed with it from a young age, especially growing up in Djibouti, which was such a traditional and conservative place, there were never any concerts or music events, so I’d often come home from school and spend hours on YouTube. So, when I moved to Montreal, I fell in love with the music community, but I never really realised you could make music like that until I met Kaytranada, where he initially discovered me from a few singing videos on Facebook. When I first met Kaytra he asked me whether I was a songwriter and was intrigued to know what I was working on. At the time he was looking for a vocalist, I was super young and carefree, so I was pretty much open to any opportunity.

Things happened kind of quickly with Kaytra, despite being at University I managed to work on at least three songs with him, by the time I graduated I was already working on ‘Leave Me Alone’ from Kaytra’s 2016 album 99.9%. My journey in music has been all about self-discovery. A lot of people know my music from back then, but I wasn’t an artist then I was pretty much singing for fun and putting it on Soundcloud, 2018 is when I started taking music a little more seriously and that’s around the time I released my debut EP Dangerous, my second one then led to me touring with Omar Apollo and before I knew it things started slowing down as the pandemic hit. During that period, I decided to change a lot of things in my life, including my music, but now I’m back, it feels very different now however I'm very excited!

What inspired you to take your music in a new direction?

I’ve always loved exploring different avenues with my music, but now it's like it feels very different, I'm very excited. My previous EP Solaris was heavily influenced by Afrobeats, so, I always had that tendency of wanting to be exploring different things. I knew I wanted to bring in more dancing, so during my month-long trip to L.A., I wrote all the new songs there and met a lot of new artists and producers, the whole trip resonated with me, it was truly a moment of reclamation. It was intentional for my latest single Takuta to have a completely different sound to anything I’ve ever released; I’m working on other things, but this track was a fun little taste into what people can expect from me in the future. All the tracks I plan to release will have their own unique sound.

How does it make you feel seeing the infamous Boiler Room video resurface online?

For a long time, I didn’t own the fact I was in the video, as I was so young and had only just stepped into the music world. With a lot of my music back then I didn’t have any visuals, so people never really connected the dots and never really knew that I was a musician, for a long time to a lot of people I was just the girl dancing next to Kaytranada. It was only recently I realised I was one of the contributing reasons why that video became so big, I’ve read so many genuine comments that are filled with love and appreciation. To me the love is still crazy because in that video I wasn’t performing or trying to be anyone else, I was just vibing and being myself.

Growing up, were there any artists that inspired you?

Some of my earliest memories between the ages of 0-5 are when my parents would play music around the house - they both have great taste my mum would play a lot of R’n’B whereas my dad would play blues and jazz. I remember when I was 4 years old and I would stand in front of the TV impersonating Janet Jackson, she’s an artist who is pretty much embedded in me, I took aspects of her groove and style and reworked them into my Takutá’s music video. Artists like TLC, Justin Timberlake, and Destiny’s Child were also a huge inspiration to me, I was pretty much obsessed with any artist who could dance and sing, it was a battle to get me to do my homework as a child as I’d much prefer to watch Beyonce or Justin Timberlake choreography.

I’ve seen you’ve worked with some very talented artists from across the globe from Kojey Radical to Adekunle Gold, is there anyone else you’d like to work with in the future?

Right now, there’s no strategy or focus on working with any other artist, my focus is reconnecting with my audience, however, some of the artists who I admire include Kali Uchis, Latin singer Nathy Peluso, Victoria Monet, and of course the one and only Kaytranada I see us working together in the future.

What usually inspired your music?

I think when I’m dancing and connecting with the music, that’s when I become most inspired, If I’m in the studio with a producer they’ll usually play me a beat and I’ll write, vibe, and dance, I’m so receptive to music so I just let it naturally guide me.

Will you be incorporating your East African heritage with your new music?

No, and that’s only because of where I grew up in Djibouti, the music was very traditional, quite similar to Moroccan music they used a lot of percussion and desert sounds If I feel like it doesn’t fit my current sound, but if it’s the right track I could include samples. As mentioned before, what inspired me growing up If I’m being honest was the likes of Beyonce and Janet Jackson. But something that will always be incorporated into my music is me, I’ll never forget where I’ve come from or who I am, all you need to do is look at me and know I’m from East Africa, it’s my hair, my forehead, my eyes, my style, Shay Lia isn’t a persona it’s who I am.