Aisha Badru

Understated and heartfelt folk-pop artist Aisha Badru first drew widespread attention in 2016 after an automaker placed her independently issued single “Waiting Around” in a television commercial. The exposure prompted a recording agreement that yielded her debut full-length, Pendulum, in 2018, followed by the EP Road to Self in 2019.

Raised in Yonkers, New York, Badru discovered an interest in writing and literature while still in high school, later adding guitar and vocals to her pursuits. Lacking confidence, she declined offers of music scholarships and instead enrolled at a college roughly ten miles south in the Bronx. Three years into her studies she withdrew to devote herself fully to music, playing open-mike nights and taking a bookstore job to finance studio time. That strategy bore fruit when the same 2015 Vacancy EP track was licensed for the national campaign, which aired well beyond U.S. borders and reached her father in Nigeria. In 2017 she signed with Nettwerk, which promptly reissued the Vacancy EP on a broader scale. The following April she unveiled Pendulum, an intimate collection she wrote and co-produced. Further journeys, conversations with listeners, and recurring dreams shaped the material for the five-song Road to Self, issued in 2019.