Faouzia has the potential to become Gen Z’s next big pop star

Moroccan Canadian singer built a huge fan base and won Juno nominations without releasing an album

EEarlier this year Faouzia Ouihya won a mysterious heads-up with the announcement of the 2022 Juno nomination.A young singer whose stage name is Faouzia (pronounced) Foe-zee-ya) — I watched it with my sister Samia at my home in Winnipeg on March 1st. I thought that tip-off was an effort to increase the number of viewers. “The groundbreaking artist was one of the last categories to be announced,” Faouzia said in an interview with Zoom. “Soon my name and face came to me, and it felt like,” Oh, this is insane. ” “A month later, she says she hasn’t sunk yet. When she was talking to the team about what to wear for the awards ceremony, she realized,” I’m nominated, so I’m going to Junos. “

Faouzia isn’t a very common name in Canada, but this year’s Junos may change that.She was nominated for her famous talents, including Tesher, a South Asian Canadian artist from Regina who worked with Jason Derulo. Jarebi BabyA Toronto-based rapper Pressa that has been played over 200 million times on YouTube. I’m touring with Drake. Faouzia is a fierce competitor himself. When she was 21, she already had a single with John Legend and shared an agent with Billie Eilish. Faouzia has many loyal fans: 3.1 million TikTok followers, 1.9 million YouTube subscribers, 1.9 million Instagram followers, and Spotify’s more than 4 million monthly listeners. She is one of many Gen Z artists who have cultivated a fan base on social media, especially TikTok, even before her album was released.

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There are two reasons why Faouzia has attracted such a large number of fans. The first is her great talent as a singer. YouTube vocal coaches praise her range, her tone depth, vibrato and breath control, and her fans post enthusiastic compliments on TikTok. The second is her sober and cheerful personality. At Tik Tok Live with iHeart Radio last fall, she was asked which shampoo to use for her shiny hair. She is Costco’s own brand, Kirkland. In the Refinery29 video segment revealing the contents of her wallet, she unpacked deodorant, stain remover, and gum from her SwissGear backpack. “You can take this bag and catch me on campus,” she said, referring to her time spent as a computer engineering student at the University of Manitoba. Faouzia is often Post and sing song snippets on social media Lip sync to a capella or hairbrush.Several Video of her experimenting with performance — widShine your eyes like an anime character, or wear her long, black hair in space buns reminiscent of TikTok’s star-turned singer Bella Poarch.

Faouzia was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and moved to Canada with her parents and sister at the age of one. She grew up in Carman, Manitoba. Southwest of Winnipeg is a town with 3,000 people an hour. “I literally had a lot of time to do it. It was so cold outside that I didn’t play hockey, “she says. She is from a music lover who listened to the biggest name in the Arabic music world, the legendary Egyptian singer-songwriter Umm Krusm, the Lebanese diva Faires, the Algerian pop star Khaled. Fausia’s parents put her three daughters in a piano lesson, Fausia learned how to sing, and she learned to play the guitar and violin. She absorbed as much as she could from pop divas such as Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Rihanna, and she decided to be like them. “When you are a kid, you are very confident. You have all these dreams and aspirations, and nothing in your way,” says Faouzia. “As I get older,” Will I be a singer? Is this realistic? “”

Faouzia appeared on a talent show at the age of five and began singing and playing the piano. When she was eight, she performed in small festivals in and around Carman, and she began playing classical music such as Beethoven, Chopin and Mozart. She also started experimenting with her pop music. She released her first single, Knock on my door, 2015, and two years later, she won the Nashville-based contest Unsigned Only with a prize of $ 20,000. At the age of 17 in 2017, Faouzia signed with a talent agency and a record label shortly before her 18th birthday.She is currently recording at Atlantic Records and her first EP was Stripped offReleased in 2020.

Suddenly, a child from the small town of Manitova flew to Los Angeles to compose with a team, later collaborating with French DJ and producer David Guetta and Swedish producer Ali Payami, who wrote the weekend and Demi songs. Robert. “I immediately woke up and felt like I was in Carman’s bed,” says Faouzia.

Faouzia also writes herself every day and has been credited as a composer and producer of her work.During the pandemic she played on Kelly Clarkson’s track i dare you, Clarkson sang in six languages ​​with artists from all over the world. “I grew up singing her song,” Faouzia said in an interview. ET Canada.. “It was very special to hear her sing in Arabic.”

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Another pinch-me moment was collaborating with John Legend on a ballad. Minefield.. Faouzia recorded the track herself, but her team was thinking of adding a strong male vocalist to accompany her. They sent her recording to the legend and a week later she replied: he loved it. A week later, he recorded the vocals. “It was the fastest and easiest collaboration ever. He was very involved and invested,” says Faouzia. This process took place in Zoom, but the pair finally met when the video was shot over two days in late 2020. Since its release in January 2021, the video has been watched over 72 million times on YouTube.

Faouzia’s stars are rising soon: Rolling stone, variety When people Flagged her as a notable artist. She flew to Egypt for a private event, was invited to a Chanel show in Dubai, and attended her first New York Fashion Week earlier this year. Faouzia took a break from school in her previous semester and worked on the release of eight tracks. Citizen, Will be released in May. She built expectations for her first single, RIP, lovePrior to its release in March, we used a simple clip on social media to combine Western pop with North African and Middle Eastern influences. “It’s like a mini version of the future,” she says.