Piano, voice, composition and melody, these are the primary tools she wields to get through to…herself. Tools summoning words to assist in the recursively unfolding Undertaking; to confront and embrace hers and her family’s shadows. She angles lenses available to her; neo-colonialism, romantic rejection, overbearing anxiety, and the maddening oscillations (often overlaps) of invisibility and hypervisibility, directing the sun’s rays to illuminate.

Jumping timelines in Bushwick, Atlanta, Iowa City (birthplace) and now Kansas City as a keyboardist, background singer, lead vocalist and band leader, this is a journey of many entry points. What was first a coping mechanism to maintain sanity in the distinctly otherizing world of the New York Finance District version of Corporate America soon sparked the drive to study the complexities of her voice; building upon a foundation formed from middle school choir, a private love for singing, and years of training in piano. When this all started, Hadiza.’s timeline was one within which she acted as an element to other projects and was more than content labeling any pursuit of music a ‘hobby’. Time did what it does best in presenting more and more opportunities to jump, with each jump higher than the last. That first jump though? It was rough. Now, she composes, sings, writes, plays, refines, collaborates, shares, repeat in no particular order. The result has been an eclectic blend of soul, classical, jazz, blues and folk. Hadiza. writes songs for herself first. She doesn’t expect you to relate or embrace her, but when a stranger takes something from her words, her singing, her melodies and is compelled to share, it is confirmation to keep jumping and to never look back.