Equally at home in dusty libraries perusing Scottish murder ballads and Arabic scales Eliza Shaddad’s singular artistry is the product of an incredibly diverse and borderless upbringing. Born to Sudanese and Scottish parents and raised across seven countries, she is the descendent of a long line of progressive artists and academics dating back to the 1800s. She holds an MPhil in Philosophy, speaks four languages and is a graduate in Jazz from the Guildhall School. She is a complex character, impossible to pigeon-hole as she constantly redefines herself.

Key to the respect the industry shows for Eliza’s work is the fact that she manages to be both a serious grafter and a true fighter for that which she believes in. Her debut album Future is a body of work she has fought tooth and nail to complete. Set on the bedrock of Eliza’s early folk and grunge influences, it revels in “flavours of trip-hop, West-Coast surf sounds, 80’s chorus, 90’s movie soundtracks, and all-out pop” while still managing to sound like a focused, devastatingly precise and cohesive body of work.

Eliza has toured across the UK and Europe and is looking forward to playing her first shows in the US at SXSW.

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