Yuna

Photo by Ajarina Hitomi

It’s no overstatement to highlight that today’s podcast is with a certified pop star. Say hello to Yuna, a pop singer-songwriter from Malaysia who’s one of the most successful artists to hail from the region. For over a decade she’s released songs that have garnered millions of streams, has collaborated with titans like Tyler The Creator, Little Simz, Pharrell Williams, and USHER. No seriously, she’s collabed with fucking Usher, which is just immense, isn’t it?

(There’s also the fact that she’s been nominated for over 100 music awards, and has won multiple Malaysian Music Awards (the equivalent of the Grammy’s in Malaysia), along with winning a Billboard Music Award, Rolling Stone Award, and a VMA Music Award?!?!)

However, I will say, to call Yuna a pop singer feels a bit reductive when you consider the wide breadth of her career. Across four albums she’s experimented with various sounds, with a firm fixation on that R&B sound. Specifically, that early 00’s R&B sound (think Aaliyah and Timbaland), which you can tell is deeply loved and respected by Yuna’s pen. Now, Yuna is taking the reins of her career independently and her first course of action has been to restructure how she releases music. Enter Y5, a series of five EPs that she’ll be releasing this year, with an eventual full-length album comprising of all the tracks. Y1 came out back in March and recently she’s dropped Y2, a collection of 3 new songs that are blistering in their quality. On today’s episode I chat with Yuna about her feelings behind re-contextualizing her career, what it looks like to forge a new path for one’s self, and like most of our episodes, I make sure to give Yuna her flowers.

After you hear the episode, be sure to check out Yuna’s track 24 Hours on the official New Exchange Playlist. Also, be sure to follow Yuna on Spotify, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.