Name: Tkay Maidza
Age: 27
Currently: The Australian-Zimbabwean singer will open for Flume, one of her recent creative collaborators, on Friday at the Greek Theater in L.A. The singer is releasing her new single “WUACV” on Wednesday, which follows “Ring-a-Ling” in late July. Both songs are from her forthcoming album, “Sweet Justice,” out later this fall.
“It’s been really amazing and exceeded my expectations,” says Maidza of fan reception to her recent music and accompanying videos. “It’s been so affirming and exciting and the biggest response I’ve really had in my career.”
Maidza recently returned home after opening for Lizzo during her Australia tour this summer, and has previously supported artists including Billie Eilish and Dua Lipa in concert.
The inspiration behind “Sweet Justice”: Maidza notes that when she started working on her new album, she had just moved away from her family and into her own place post-pandemic.
“So I was going through those growing pains. In the beginning, I was writing a lot of songs for me. There came a point where I started traveling again during lockdown, and it shifted my perspective,” she says. “I want to inspire other people, and I want to uplift myself as well. The title ‘Sweet Justice’ is about cycles ending and allowing it to flow, as opposed to feeling like a victim. The songs on the album are the internal dialogue of me coming to resolutions and conclusions.”
On not sticking to one genre in her music: “[My genre] is basically alt of anything,” she says. “Alt rap, alt R&B, indie pop, alt dance. It’s soulful and high energy, but also euphoric and has a smoothness that I’m always trying to go for.”
What the lead-up to the release of “Sweet Justice” looks like: “There’s going to be a lot of shows, a lot more music, music videos. I’m going to do a little mini Europe tour and a U.S. tour within two weeks of the album’s coming out. And then I go to Australia for another festival tour called Spilt Milk,” she says.
Building her visual identity through music videos like “Silent Assassin”: “It’s very 2000s VFX. You’re in space, but hot girl vibes,” she says of her aesthetic approach. “I tend to reference a lot of Busta Rhymes and Missy Elliott and 2000s videos that are fun, but they’re also very stylistic,” she adds. “Basically all the video games and movies and music videos that I’ve loved since I was a kid. And now, I’m reincarnating it in Tkay’s world.”
Tkay Maidza