ZEPHYR [ˈzefər] NOUN
A SOFT GENTLE BREEZE
Nicole Zefanya, born 24 January 1999, was raised in Jakarta, Indonesia. She grew up listening to the 1990s R&B such as Destiny’s Child and Aaliyah because of her mother. As she was in school, Zefanya gained popularity with her covers and original songs on YouTube, gaining more than 40,000 subscribers. She has since deleted all her previous videos but some of her old songs can still be found online.
Zefanya independently released the songs “Polaroid Boy” and “Anaheim” in 2016 and 2017 respectively. In 2017, Zefanya moved to Nashville and studied music in Lipscomb University while releasing “See U Never” and “I Like U”. under the American mass media company 88rising as an artist under their label. She released the song “Vintage” on 2 May 2018 as the first single of for her EP. On 23 May 2018, Zefanya released her debut EP Zephyr.
Through her music, Zefanya is trying to empower Asians and Asian Americans. During the Head in The Clouds music festival, NIKI, takes a moment to address the 10,000-plus people gathered in Los Angeles’ Historic State Park. “I just want to say, as an Asian female, I do not take this day and this stage for granted. My hope is that above everything else today, that you feel heard, you feel understood, but most of all that you feel represented.” NIKI’s mission is to empower young Asian artists under-represented in US music industry.
Personal Favorites include: “See U Never”, “Chilly”, and “I Like U“.
POEM OF THE WEEK
Mixing it up with some rhyme schemes and varying themes
I picked this poem because this writer, Li-Young Lee, was born in Indonesia just like Nicole Zefanya. He also moved to Pennsylvania as a young child, connecting him to us all at Penn State!
This is a really interesting take on a different kind of artist. I would definitely not be familiar with her at all, but her story and ideals of representation have for sure piqued my interest. If we had one last blog post after this I would love to see your 2019 Wrapped from Spotify, but sadly we don’t. The connection from the writer of the poem to Indonesia and PA is really cool, and not necessarily something that is easy to find.