Malika Ayane

Coming from a theater background, Italian singer-songwriter Malika Ayane (January 31, 1984) took the charts by storm in the 2010s with her soul-inflected brand of pop music. Born in Milan to a Moroccan father and an Italian mother, she became a member of La Scala’s White Voices Choir while simultaneously studying cello at the renowned Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in the 90s. During the mid-aughts, she recorded a couple of tracks for TV commercials, including the original “Soul Waver,” which was used by Saab in 2007. A fortunate encounter with singer Caterina Caselli led to a recording contract with indie label Sugar Music, who released “Sospesa,” an Italian version of “Soul Waver,” as Ayane’s debut single in 2008. Her eponymous studio debut came out that year and spawned two more radio hits that reached the Top 10: “Feeling Better” and “Come Foglie,” a lush orchestral pop number that premiered at the 2009 Sanremo Music Festival. Malika Ayane’s hot streak continued with the platinum-selling albums Grovigli (2010) and Ricreazione (2012), both of which peaked at Number 2 in Italy, and Naif (2015), which hit Number 9. Subsequently, she delivered a fifth album titled Domino in 2018 and returned with the singles “Wow (Niente aspetta)” (2019) and “Ti Piaci Così” (2021), the first single off her sixth album, Malifesto.