Biography
Scottish-Sudanese artist Eliza Shaddad first built her reputation through yearning, experimental folk while working as a solo street performer and busker across London. Her profile expanded sharply after she contributed vocals to Clean Bandit’s 2014 debut album New Eyes, and that association quickly led to critical notice for her own wide-ranging and finely shaded EPs Waters, released in 2014, and Run, issued in 2016.
Her father hails from Khartoum, Sudan, and her mother from Perth, Scotland; Shaddad grew up in a mixed-heritage household whose artistic lineage reaches back to the 1800s and her great-great-grandfather, the celebrated Scottish landscape painter James Paterson. During childhood she moved between Europe, Africa, and the United Kingdom, absorbing an array of musical influences that included Scottish and Irish folk traditions, Sudanese classical forms, and Slovakian Christmas repertoire. She began singing early, took up piano, and switched to guitar at sixteen. Only after enrolling in philosophy studies at Birmingham University in England did she commit fully to music, drawing inspiration from the rock of Radiohead and System of a Down as well as the folk work of Nick Harper and Martha Tilston. She later completed a postgraduate year in jazz at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which broadened her range further. Busking and live appearances followed, and she joined Samantha Lindo to establish the women’s arts collective Girls Girls Girls, staging multidisciplinary events aimed at female empowerment. Her first release, the dark, folk-oriented EP Waters, appeared on the independent imprint Beatnik Creative in 2014.
While busking in Shoreditch she met Clean Bandit’s Jack Patterson, who invited her to sing on the group’s electro-classical album New Eyes. That record climbed to number three on the U.K. chart and reached number six on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums tally. Over the ensuing year she toured with Clean Bandit, performed on BBC Radio 1, and supported Rudimental, SBTRKT, and Alt-J. In 2016 she resumed her solo catalog with the Beatnik Creative EP Run, which introduced a tougher electric-guitar edge. Two years later she delivered her first full-length album, Future. Cut in Devon with Mercury Prize-nominated producer Chris Bond, the record included the single “White Lines.”
Her father hails from Khartoum, Sudan, and her mother from Perth, Scotland; Shaddad grew up in a mixed-heritage household whose artistic lineage reaches back to the 1800s and her great-great-grandfather, the celebrated Scottish landscape painter James Paterson. During childhood she moved between Europe, Africa, and the United Kingdom, absorbing an array of musical influences that included Scottish and Irish folk traditions, Sudanese classical forms, and Slovakian Christmas repertoire. She began singing early, took up piano, and switched to guitar at sixteen. Only after enrolling in philosophy studies at Birmingham University in England did she commit fully to music, drawing inspiration from the rock of Radiohead and System of a Down as well as the folk work of Nick Harper and Martha Tilston. She later completed a postgraduate year in jazz at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which broadened her range further. Busking and live appearances followed, and she joined Samantha Lindo to establish the women’s arts collective Girls Girls Girls, staging multidisciplinary events aimed at female empowerment. Her first release, the dark, folk-oriented EP Waters, appeared on the independent imprint Beatnik Creative in 2014.
While busking in Shoreditch she met Clean Bandit’s Jack Patterson, who invited her to sing on the group’s electro-classical album New Eyes. That record climbed to number three on the U.K. chart and reached number six on Billboard’s Top Dance/Electronic Albums tally. Over the ensuing year she toured with Clean Bandit, performed on BBC Radio 1, and supported Rudimental, SBTRKT, and Alt-J. In 2016 she resumed her solo catalog with the Beatnik Creative EP Run, which introduced a tougher electric-guitar edge. Two years later she delivered her first full-length album, Future. Cut in Devon with Mercury Prize-nominated producer Chris Bond, the record included the single “White Lines.”
Albums
Singles
