Sevdaliza

Sevdaliza constructs intricate, emotionally charged experimental pop that weaves together trip-hop, R&B, orchestral textures, and international sonic traditions. Following a run of concise early releases, the multifaceted singer, songwriter, producer, and director unveiled the ambitious 2017 audiovisual project Ison, which drew widespread praise and drew parallels to the atmospheric work of Portishead, Björk, Velvet Rope-era Janet Jackson, and current artists such as FKA twigs and Little Dragon. On the 2020 album Shabrang she delved further into themes of identity and recovery through music reflecting her Iranian heritage, while the 2022 release Raving Dahlia offered a futuristic, club-oriented vision of feminism grounded in everyday realities. Joint efforts such as the 2023 track “Nothing Lasts Forever” alongside Grimes and the 2024 breakout single “Alibi” featuring Pabllo Vittar and Yseult carried her perspective to broader listeners and simultaneously expanded her sonic palette.

Sevda Alizadeh, born in Tehran and raised in Rotterdam, competed in basketball for the Dutch national youth squad and completed a master’s degree in communication prior to pursuing creative work in the early 2010s. After issuing pieces like the 2012 recording “DelftsBlauw,” she issued two 2015 EPs, The Suspended Kid and Children of Silk, both produced in collaboration with Rotterdam-based Mucky and issued via her independent Twisted Elegance imprint. In 2016 she released the short film The Formula, which incorporated tracks such as “Mad Woman,” later issued as a standalone single in 2017.

Sevdaliza’s first full-length album, Ison, appeared in April 2017. Titled after a sungrazing comet, the expansive collection centered on questions of identity and reincarnation and was simultaneously presented in visual format. She continued in 2018 with the EP The Calling and several singles, among them the 2019 release “Martyr,” ahead of the August 2020 arrival of her sophomore album Shabrang. Referencing a black horse from an eleventh-century Persian epic poem, the record once again paired her with Mucky and string arranger Mihai Puscoiu. February 2022 brought the dance-oriented EP Raving Dahlia, which followed a robotic “femmenoid” protagonist freeing herself from societal constraints placed on women; Sevdaliza issued the project on Twisted Elegance and built a physical version of the character herself.

Later that year she released the standalone single “Woman Life Freedom,” initiating a phase focused on shorter releases. Subsequent projects included the 2023 collaboration “Ride or Die” with Villano Antillano, the Grimes duet “Nothing Lasts Forever” toward year’s end—an exhortation for women to reject imposed limits—and her own “Who Are You Running From.” In January 2024 she joined Palestinian-Chilean singer Elyanna for “Good Torture,” then issued “Ride or Die, Pt. 2” in May, a reworking featuring Tokischa that reached number 43 on the U.S. Hot Latin Songs chart. Greater chart impact arrived with “Alibi,” a reggaeton- and baile funk-infused track featuring Pabllo Vittar and Yseult that spread rapidly online and entered the top ten in thirteen countries. In the United States it climbed to number 95 on the Hot 100, marking the first appearance on that tally for all three performers and establishing Vittar as only the second drag queen to chart there after RuPaul.