Zee Avi

Whimsical and jazzy in her approach, singer/songwriter Izyan Allrahman—widely recognized as Zee Avi—secured her initial recording contract through the attention her YouTube uploads attracted. Born in Borneo during 1986, she relocated to Kuala Lumpur at age twelve and first picked up the guitar five years later. After finishing a fashion-design program at London’s American InterContinental University, she came back to Kuala Lumpur at twenty-one and began performing at local venues. When a friend missed one of those shows, Avi captured the set herself and uploaded the footage, launching her YouTube presence; favorable reactions prompted her to keep adding new clips.

Singer/songwriter Kris Rowley soon encountered her material and began sharing selections on his own channel. Interest continued to build throughout the following year until Avi uploaded “No Christmas for Me,” which she had described as her final video. Record-label offers quickly arrived, among them a message from Ian Montone of Monotone Records, who had learned of the songs through Raconteurs drummer Patrick Keeler. She joined Monotone Records/Brushfire before the close of 2008, and her self-titled debut appeared the next spring. The album achieved gold certification across Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, after which she issued Ghostbird in 2011.