Tamara in the News
For the second week of our CreatiVity program, Creative Director of Celine and longtime V collaborator, Hedi Slimane has his eyes on a rapidly growing artist from South Africa. Through Quadio —a new social streaming platform dedicated to showcasing the best new college music—Slimane’s next musical guest is everything but ordinary.
For his pick of the week, Hedi chose Tamara Kumbula, a 20-year-old artist studying at the Musician’s Institute in Los Angeles. This institution is home to alumni: Anderson Paak; just one of Tamara’s many inspirations. Her music has kept her company while in quarantine, but with excitement, she is ready to share her gift with the rest of the stay-at-home world. Having extra time to perfect, produce, and write her new single, “Clockwise” set to drop April 24th.
“Clockwise” was created to help Tamara overcome a difficult and personal moment in her own life in 2019, unknowingly mirroring the current social and economic climate of 2020. With this in mind, her voice is undoubtedly encouraging to all that listen.
A four part Gladiator album is soon to follow, where her mature sound stands its ground while showcased alongside prominent voices in the music industry. Tamara’s CreatiVity is at an all-time high and is an inspiration to other college stars around the world.
Check out “1 to 8” the song Hedi selected below, and stay tuned for her new single “Clockwise” out on April 24th along with an official interview that will be featured on V next week.
Tamara Kumbula was picked last week by the iconic designer and longtime V collaborator Hedi Slimaneas CreatiVity’s artist of the week. The 20-year-old LA-based artist with South African origins isn’t shy about opening up sharing her experiences end encourages listeners to do the same. She started writing songs and singing from when she was only 8 or 9 years old. To this day, she draws inspiration from the personal experiences she had growing up, and she wants listeners to internalize her songs and relate them to whatever they’re going through personally.
As Tamara is preparing to release her newest single “Clockwise (Gold)” on April 24, we spoke with the up-and-coming singer-songwriter about her background in music, the impact of COVID-19 on her creative process and her plans for the nearest future and beyond.
Tamara Kumbula is a South African born and raised artist based out of Los Angeles, and at just 20 years old, she is a voice to be reckoned with. Some of the best music out there simply can’t be confined to one genre, can’t be pinned down—it’s too fluid, too versatile, too good. Kumbula’s music easily finds itself in this category and we’re thankful to our collaborator Quadio—the music streaming platform for college students—for introducing us to such an eclectic act. While her music has been described by Quadio as “pop-rap,” in this Buzzsession, there is definitely an added element of rock as well, and it all comes together perfectly. Kumbula’s songs are percussion-driven and rhythm-focused while showcasing the percussion and rhythm contained in her own voice as it melds with the instruments accompanying her. In this Buzzsession, we see Kumbula joined by her four band members—face masks and all—on keys (Vedant Joshi), guitar (Jesus Ramos), percussion (Molly Rose) and bass (Ella Burgos). Kumbula’s presence is calm, cool and intense, and her voice is as crisp and smooth as ever.
We first hear an original song of hers, “1 to 8,” which is packed with tempo changes and is invigorating to see and hear come to life. Kumbula is captivating as a frontwoman, and her band members are immaculate in their groove. All parties carry this into the next song in the session, an insanely cool cover of Beyoncé’s “Formation.” For anyone to cover any song by Queen Bey is a bold move, but Kumbula no doubt knew the stakes were high, and she more than delivered. The power that exists in Beyoncé’s “Formation” translates profoundly in Kumbula’s performance, and her rendition of this iconic number takes the song and this session to a whole new level.
Interspersed with the live performance footage is just enough B-roll to confirm our suspicions that Kumbala and her band have fun doing what they do. Spoiler alert: There is a dog.
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