Mayaeni

Mayaeni, a vocalist, guitarist, and composer whose sound fuses classic soul and blues with modern flair and vitality, came into the world and grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Born Mayaeni Strauss, she inherited a West African lineage from her mother while her father Gary, a respected guitarist who had collaborated with Jimmy Ruffin, Sylvester, and Carl Carlton, provided early immersion in music. She frequently joined him in the studio and absorbed the sounds from his extensive record collection, which spotlighted Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, and Bob Dylan; further exposure to Detroit’s R&B and hip-hop environments broadened her already diverse palette. Mayaeni soon began crafting and capturing songs in her father’s home studio, and at seventeen she relocated to London, England, where she sold apparel, danced at hip-hop venues, and contributed vocals to other songwriters’ demos.

When funds dwindled she moved on to New York City and started circulating through the club circuit’s open-mike nights. A self-titled EP arrived in 2005, followed by a full-length album in 2007; that same year she toured Japan and secured an endorsement with Glad News Clothing, an uncommon achievement for an independent artist. In 2008 she entered a development deal with Linda Perry’s Custard Records. The year 2010 brought a major success when “Bee,” a song she co-wrote with Boots Ottestad and Rosi Golan, topped charts for Lena Meyer-Landrut across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Mayaeni issued the digital EP Cold Love in 2011; the project featured “Broken Glass,” which appeared in an episode of the hit series Hawaii Five-O. Her 2012 collaboration with DJ Sander Van Doorn on “Nothing Inside” achieved widespread club and radio success internationally, while a separate single, “I’m Yours,” paired her with hip-hop group Progress Report. Following the breakthrough of “Nothing Inside,” she signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label and management company, and her debut Roc Nation single, Black Jeans, surfaced in late 2014.