Daya
Sandlot/AWAL
In the mid-2010s, caught up in a non-stop whirlwind of Billboard chart, streaming and Grammy accolades, singer-songwriter Daya was living the dream of every multi-talented musical teenager. Released when she was 16, her first two singles “Hide Away” (currently nearing 400M Spotify streams) and “Sit Still Look Pretty” (currently at 429M+ streams) reached the Top 30 of the Billboard Hot 100. Between the release of those hits and her platinum selling full length debut Sit Still Look Pretty, she sang as a featured artist on The Chainsmokers’ Top 5 nine times platinum smash “Don’t Let Me Down,” which won a Grammy Award in 2017 for Best Dance Recording.
The singer’s intoxicating, alternately dreamy/ethereal and infectiously grooving new four track EP builds significantly on the powerful emotional breakthroughs she made on her 2021 EP The Difference, which featured, in her words, “fleeting moments of regret, desire, loneliness and sadness while spending more time with myself than I ever have before at home during quarantine. The songs on the new EP fit well together because they deal with that gray area in between dreams and reality, contrasting the romantic notions of what my relationship was versus the stark reality of what actually happened.”
Before she presented herself and her artistry to the world as Daya – a Sanskrit word translating to “compassion, kindness, to sympathize with and suffering in the suffering of others” – the singer born as Grace Tandon enjoyed a multi-faceted musical childhood. She took up classical piano at three, and later learned to play guitar, ukulele, saxophone and before exploring the rich possibilities of her voice. The Pittsburgh native, who cites her main vocal influences as Amy Winehouse, Dido, Sarah McLachlan and Etta James, attributes her switch from classical to jazz piano at 11 for opening her up to what she could express through songwriting.
“Over the years,” she says, “songwriting has become my primary emotional outlet that has allowed me to express my most personal thoughts, some that I wouldn’t be able to say one on one to anyone. I think it’s an especially magical quality of songwriting that I can say something either explicitly or abstractly and others will be able to find pieces of themselves within it. In addition to simply writing and singing pop songs, I hope to be creating a bed of emotion that leaves room for listeners to insert their own experiences into. It’s a blessing to be immersed in a creative community that allows me to write songs that are truly authentic to my life and which can also resonate meaningfully with others.”
CONTACT INFORMATION
Rich Egan
Management
rich@hard8wrk.com
Josh Loveless Management josh@hrd8wrk.com
David Conway Management conway@hrd8wrk.com
Matt Galle (CAA) Agent
Rachel Pestik (CAA) Agent
Sol Parker (UK/PARADIGM) Agent