INTRODUCING: ADY SULEIMAN
You may not be familiar with the name, but make no mistake that Ady Suleiman is one artist that should be on your watch list. Based just outside Nottingham, the half-Tanzanian half-English star-in-waiting has brought his own unique style to the table by incorporating plenty of elements from his diverse music taste – R&B, Soul, Jazz, Hip-Hop and Reggae.
He first began to attract attention in 2013, with BBC Introducing inviting him to perform for them on their Glastonbury stage. Not long after he was scouted by Gilles Peterson who invited him to his ‘Worldwide Award’ show, held at Koko in London, where he won ‘Breakthrough Act of the Year’.
This was just the first of many accomplishments for Ady as this award led him to support acts such as Michael Kiwanuka, Laura Mvula and Leon Bridges, as well as catching the eye of TV talent judge and multi-millionaire, Simon Cowell. So, let’s fast forward to 2015, arguably one of his most successful years to date; He signs to Simon’s label ‘Syco’, but on the condition that he releases his songs through his imprint ‘Pemba Records’ in order to maintain his independence, which I think everyone can respect! This then brought about the release of his first EP in April, straightforwardly titled ‘This is my EP’.
With his critically acclaimed EP, he began to gain a broader following, myself included, and it’s not hard to see why. There is one song on the EP that I absolutely fell in love with from the first listen, and that’s ‘Need Somebody to Love’. The warm melodic tone of the acoustic guitar complemented with his heartfelt lyrics and vocal improvisation will make you want to come back for more. He has a wonderful way of effortlessly expressing pure, raw emotion without even having to use words, which is an incredible skill. It’s a beautifully crafted song all round, as is the rest of the EP, and certainly demonstrates his innate desire and skill to be a singer/songwriter.
He then wasted no time in releasing his second EP, which followed in September of the same year. Known as ‘What’s the Score’, the record features worldwide rapper Joey Bada$$ on the EP titled track. You can feel Suleiman’s rich music background bleed through, fusing both jazz and reggae together, and with Joey Bada$$s’ verse adding hip-hop to the mix, it creates a fantastic feel-good song, perfect for chilling out in the sun wherever you are.
Within every song that Ady writes, he adopts the narrative song-writing style, pulling from personal experiences and using them to create raw and emotive music, not unlike the legendary Amy Winehouse, or perhaps Frank Ocean, both of whom he has been compared to.
After gaining a large amount of social media coverage on global British radio stations such as BBC Radio 1 and BBC 1 Extra, he continued his success as an upcoming artist by headlining his first UK Tour, releasing his third self-titled EP, and then performing at several top-flight festivals such as Parklife, V Festival and Glastonbury (for the second time). Following this, the talented singer announced his second headline tour, with the incredible achievement of selling out his London show at the venue, Scala.
Over the past few months he has released two singles, one of which was a cover of soul-classic ‘Lean on Me’ by Bill Withers and the other being ‘Not Giving Up’. He has claimed Lean on Me as his torch song in support of ‘CALM’, a male suicide prevention charity who supported him with his own feelings of anxiety and depression this year. His stripped back version is a brilliant homage and his powerful and passionate vocals accompanied only by a soulful acoustic guitar and soft harmonies without a doubt deliver a timeless message of love and togetherness.
Most recently, he has confirmed three UK shows for November in Nottingham, Bristol and London along with the release of his brand new, original single ‘Say So’ which is out now! As well as this, he is also supposedly set on releasing his debut album early 2018, and if his music is anything to go by, the sooner the better!
Posted by Conor Lusher
BUSK MUSIC 