Wafia
Wafia Al-Rikabi, known professionally as Wafia, is a singer-songwriter of Iraqi-Syrian heritage born in the Netherlands in 1993 to an Iraqi father and Syrian mother, who relocated with her family to Brisbane, Australia, during her childhood.[1][2] Initially pursuing studies in biomedicine, she pivoted to music, gaining early traction with a 2014 cover of Mario's "Let Me Love You" that amassed over five million streams on SoundCloud.[2] Her style blends pop, electronic, and R&B elements, often exploring themes of identity, belonging, and resilience drawn from her nomadic life across Europe, New Zealand, Australia, and now Los Angeles.[2][3] Wafia rose to prominence through high-profile collaborations, including her feature on Louis the Child's 2018 single "Better Not," which exceeded 300 million Spotify streams, and the 2016 EP (m)edian with producer Ta-Ku.[4][5] She released EPs such as XXIX in 2015 and the NPR-praised Good Things in 2020, earning acclaim for emotive vocals and introspective songwriting.[2] In January 2025, she issued her long-awaited debut studio album Promised Land, co-produced with Sabrina Claudio, which highlights vulnerability amid personal and global challenges; the project has been lauded for its melodic richness and thematic depth.[2][3] With nearly two million monthly Spotify listeners and endorsements from figures like Pharrell Williams, Wafia has established herself as a versatile artist bridging indie and mainstream appeal.[2]Early life and education
Upbringing and family background
Wafia Al-Rikabi was born on August 4, 1993, in the Netherlands to an Iraqi father and Syrian mother, both immigrants from the Middle East who had left their homelands approximately 25 years prior in pursuit of better prospects.[3][6] Her family experienced a nomadic early existence, relocating across multiple countries including Canada and New Zealand due to her parents' search for stability, before settling in Brisbane, Australia, when she was 11 years old.[7][3] This pattern of movement exposed her to diverse environments, often within ethnic enclaves amid predominantly white societies.[8] Raised in a Muslim household of Arab heritage, Al-Rikabi's childhood incorporated cultural and religious elements from her parents' backgrounds, including practices shaped by their Middle Eastern origins, though she later reflected on navigating these within immigrant contexts.[8][9] Her parents were characterized as diligent workers who prioritized family resilience, with her father offering particular encouragement for personal endeavors, fostering an environment that valued perseverance amid relocation challenges.[10][11] This familial structure emphasized adaptability and support, informing her early worldview without rigid adherence to traditional expectations.[12]Academic studies and pivot to music
Wafia enrolled in a biomedicine degree program at a university in Brisbane, Australia, pursuing a path toward medicine influenced by conventional academic expectations.[13] She completed the degree at age 18, demonstrating academic capability in the field despite finding the coursework monotonous.[14][15] The pivot to music stemmed from her use of songwriting as an escape from study-related boredom, initially as a personal retreat rather than a professional ambition.[13] In interviews, she described reaching a decisive point where she could no longer envision a future in biomedicine, committing fully to music post-graduation around 2014 due to its alignment with her self-identified aptitude and passion.[16][17] This shift reflected individual agency, prioritizing practical fulfillment over institutional trajectories, without reliance on external validation.[18] Prior to professional involvement, Wafia engaged in self-directed music experiments, including posting covers of artists like Frank Ocean and James Blake on SoundCloud, which served as informal skill-building through replication and adaptation.[14] These early, non-commercial efforts in the early 2010s honed her abilities independently, bridging her academic disengagement to a music-focused career.[15]Music career
Early involvement and group projects
Wafia's entry into the music industry centered on vocal contributions to electronic producers within Brisbane's burgeoning scene, particularly affiliates of the Future Classic label, beginning around 2012–2014. She first garnered online notice with an acoustic cover of Mario's "Let Me Love You," uploaded to platforms like YouTube in 2012, which highlighted her folk-influenced style amid the local electronic milieu.[19] By 2014, she engaged in collaborative recordings, providing vocals for tracks by Japanese Wallpaper, a Brisbane-based electronic artist; this included "Breathe In," featured on their self-titled EP released June 19, 2015, via Wonderlick.[20] These efforts aligned her with the label's experimental electronic output, yielding initial streams on digital platforms without standalone recognition. Her partnerships extended to producer Ta-ku, another Future Classic associate from Brisbane, resulting in co-produced elements on her 2015 EP XXIX and culminating in the joint (m)edian EP, released August 5, 2016, comprising five tracks such as "Treading Water" and "Love Somebody," distributed via the label on vinyl and digital formats.[21][22] These releases documented modest local traction, with tracks charting on Australian electronic playlists and accumulating early digital plays measured in thousands by late 2016.[23]Solo breakthrough and collaborations
Wafia's solo career gained momentum with the release of her debut single "Heartburn" on October 22, 2015, produced in collaboration with songwriter Ben Abraham via voice notes, which served as the lead track for her self-titled EP XXIX issued by Future Classic on November 20, 2015.[24][25] The EP's electronic pop sound and introspective lyrics on emotional vulnerability contributed to early buzz, with "Heartburn" accumulating over 187 million Spotify streams by October 2025, reflecting sustained listener engagement.[26] A pivotal partnership formed with Australian producer Ta-ku, culminating in their collaborative EP (m)edian, released on August 5, 2016, via Future Classic, featuring five tracks that blended future bass and R&B elements, including "Love Somebody."[27] This project elevated her visibility through joint live performances, such as their NPR Tiny Desk Concert on November 7, 2016, which showcased their vocal-production synergy and drew praise for its intimate execution.[28] Further international reach came via features on tracks by electronic producers; notably, her vocals on Louis the Child's "Better Not," released in July 2017, earned gold certification in the United States and debuted on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in 2018, marking her entry into mainstream metrics.[4][29] Wafia's second EP, VIII, arrived on January 19, 2018, under Future Classic, comprising six tracks with production credits shared among collaborators like Ta-ku and Thrupence on the instrumental "(Interlude)" and Finneas on closing track "The Ending," emphasizing layered synths and thematic closure in relationships.[30][31] These outputs, grounded in targeted production alliances, drove her transition from niche electronic scenes to broader electronic-pop audiences via streaming platforms and festival slots.Independent releases and label transitions
In 2020, Wafia released her EP Good Things on August 21 through Atlantic Records, marking her major-label debut following a signing in late 2019 to a joint venture between Atlantic and producer John Hill's Rodeo Records imprint.[32][33] The six-track project featured self-produced elements and explored post-breakup optimism, with singles like the title track emphasizing personal resilience.[34] Wafia was released from her Atlantic contract in 2021, an event she later described as triggering profound personal distress, including panic attacks and a sense of career endpoint, though no public details emerged on specific contractual or creative disagreements with the label.[35] This departure shifted her toward greater artistic autonomy, as she articulated a resolve to self-determine her trajectory: "No one gets to decide my peak for me but me. I had to take the bet that my best work was still ahead of me. And it is."[35] In response, Wafia founded Heartburn Records, her independent label incorporating a profit-sharing model for songwriters to prioritize collaborative equity over traditional major-label structures.[35] The imprint's inaugural release, the single "In The Honey" on May 19, 2022, showcased a return to pop-infused grooves with familial lyrical inspirations, produced independently to maintain creative continuity from her prior electronic-R&B leanings without major oversight.[35][36] This pivot underscored a business-oriented emphasis on sustained output control, allowing thematic depth—such as emotional recovery narratives—unconstrained by label-driven timelines.[35]Recent album and tours (2024–present)
In April 2024, Wafia signed with Nettwerk Music Group and released the single "Background," marking her return to new music following a period of independent projects.[37][38] Her debut studio album, Promised Land, was originally set for release on January 17, 2025, via Heartburn Records under exclusive license to Nettwerk, but the launch was postponed after devastating wildfires affected Los Angeles, where Wafia resides; the album was released on February 7, 2025, comprising 13 tracks exploring themes of displacement and transition.[3][39] In November 2024, Wafia conducted the "Sad S**t" tour in Australia, featuring intimate performances of recent material including "Background" and "Sad Shit," with dates in Sydney on November 2 at Metro Social, Melbourne on November 7 at Howler, and Brisbane on November 8.[40][41] She later appeared at the BIGSOUND 2025 music showcase in Brisbane in September, performing as part of the official lineup alongside acts such as Kaiit and Azure Ryder.[42][43]Musical style and artistry
Genre influences and sound evolution
Wafia's music draws primarily from R&B, electronica, and pop, blending breathy vocals with layered synths and rhythmic grooves that prioritize emotional depth over strict genre adherence.[44] Early works, particularly collaborations in the 2010s, leaned into club-oriented electronica with pulsating beats and atmospheric production, as heard in tracks like "Treading Water" (2013) co-produced with Ta-Ku, which featured dance-floor-ready drops and minimalistic electronic builds.[45] This phase reflected influences from electronic indie producers, with Wafia citing the prevalence of Euro pop and dance radio during her formative years in Europe as shaping her initial sound palette.[46] By the mid-2010s, her solo output began incorporating R&B-infused melodies and introspective arrangements, evident in singles like "Fading" (2016), where smoother vocal runs and mid-tempo grooves supplanted earlier high-energy electronica.[47] The 2018 VIII EP furthered this shift, introducing more vulnerable pop structures with interludes and subtle builds that prioritized sonic texture over propulsion, marking a deliberate evolution toward emotional layering.[48] Wafia has described this transition as embracing change as core to her artistry, moving from collaborative electronic experiments to self-directed production that amplified personal introspection.[45] Into the 2020s, her sound refined into alt-pop with broader eclectic touches, as in the Good Things EP (2020), which deepened R&B harmonies while experimenting with whimsical synths and indie-rock edges, signaling a maturation from club roots to narrative-driven compositions.[49] For her 2025 debut album Promised Land, influences expanded to include indie acts like Vampire Weekend and Phoenix, resulting in tracks buoyed by bossa nova rhythms, psychedelia, and feminine whimsy, tied to specific production choices like organic instrumentation over pure synth dominance.[3][50] This progression—from Ta-Ku-era credits heavy on beatmakers to later DIY-leaning solo production—highlights a verifiable pivot toward autonomy, with Wafia handling more keys and arrangements post-2018 releases.[51]Songwriting approach and production
Wafia's songwriting process emphasizes iteration and experimentation, adapting to the project's needs rather than relying on fixed inspirational moments. She often begins with basic instrumentation, such as guitar or piano, to develop core ideas acoustically before layering in production elements, allowing for organic evolution through trial and refinement.[52] This approach varies across tracks; for instance, she has described starting from conceptual discussions in co-writing sessions or even production-first builds, prioritizing relatability and structural clarity over spontaneous bursts.[52] Collaboration plays a central role in her writing patterns, blending solo introspection with external input to enhance mechanics like chord progressions and melody. Early works, such as the track "Heartburn" co-produced with Ta-Ku, involved shared experimentation with techniques like pitched-up, stuttering samples and military-style percussion to achieve a distinctive texture.[52] On her 2025 debut album Promised Land, executive-produced by Sabrina Claudio, multiple tracks feature co-writes, including "The Summer Was Sweet" with Claudio and producer Kaveh Rastegar, where Wafia oversaw the integration of lush pop and R&B elements through iterative sessions.[53][50] She maintains oversight in these partnerships, as seen in prior releases like "Wide Open" with Masego and Ta-ku, ensuring the writing and production align with her vision via repeated refinements.[54] In refining output, Wafia incorporates feedback loops, such as multiple iterations on songs like "Distant" from Promised Land, where she reverted to the initial demo after external suggestions to preserve emotional authenticity.[50] She adapts to digital tools for distribution and annotation, sharing lyric breakdowns on platforms like Genius to invite scrutiny and further iterate on interpretations, fostering a transparent process grounded in empirical adjustment rather than idealized creativity.[52]Themes in work
Personal identity and relationships
Wafia's lyrics recurrently feature autobiographical reflections on her queer relationships, emphasizing cautious intimacy and the aftermath of romantic dissolution. In songs like "Only Love" and "Bodies" from her 2016 EP VIII, she examines guarded emotions in queer romance, drawing from personal experiences of love amid broader identity reckonings.[55] Similarly, "I’m Good" emerged directly from her first significant adult breakup, channeling hurt into an outwardly carefree expression of recovery.[55] Several tracks confront abusive elements within past partnerships, transforming raw interactions into material for emotional processing. For instance, the 2024 single "Sad St" derives from "insane and cruel" text messages sent by an ex during their relationship, which Wafia and her collaborators read aloud while composing, prompting her to quip that the ex merits a writing credit.[41] "House Down," another 2024 release, similarly addresses relational cruelty, underscoring patterns of harm without idealization.[41] These works, performed on her 2024 "Sad St" tour across Australia's east coast, highlight lyrics as a mechanism for confronting and moving beyond toxicity.[41] Familial dynamics further inform her portrayal of personal vulnerabilities, particularly tensions between inherited expectations and autonomous choices in identity and bonds. Wafia has described her father as the origin of her musical drive—her "absolute champion"—yet also the figure responsible for her deepest pain, contributing to ongoing estrangement.[41] This duality manifests in tracks like "Pick Me," where she grapples with a ingrained tendency to deprioritize herself, rooted in relational and paternal histories.[41] Through such disclosures, Wafia evidences resilience via persistent productivity, converting adversity into output like the "Sad S**t" tour dates concluding in Brisbane on November 8, 2024, and subsequent singles amid relational fallout.[41] Her approach prioritizes lyrical candor over resolution, yielding empirical continuity in career milestones despite disclosed harms.[41]Cultural heritage and social issues
Wafia's lyrics often reference her Iraqi-Syrian heritage and Muslim upbringing, integrating elements of Middle Eastern culture such as Arabic words and influences into her electro-pop sound, as seen in tracks that draw from her nomadic family background across the Netherlands, Bahrain, and Australia.[17] In her 2017 single "Bodies," released on September 1, she addresses the Syrian refugee crisis directly, inspired by the denial of visas to her mother's family on the day of writing, using upbeat instrumentation to contrast media-driven fear with a humanizing plea: "All these bodies on the street / They just want to be free."[56][12] This reflects diaspora experiences without framing them as perpetual victimhood, emphasizing instead the universal desire for safety amid her own successful integration into Australian society through music and education in biomedicine.[34] Her work navigates the intersection of Muslim faith and queer identity—identifying as pansexual—through themes of self-acceptance and resilience, as explored in her February 2025 debut album Promised Land, which returns to narratives of family, Australian roots, and growing up queer and Muslim.[3] Wafia has described achieving peace with her ethnicity and queerness as key to her artistic evolution, avoiding assumptions of irreconcilable conflict by focusing on personal agency and emotional depth rather than systemic barriers.[45] The album's tracks, such as those weaving hope from frequent relocations and cultural duality, underscore adaptive integration, evidenced by her RIAA-certified gold status and global collaborations, which demonstrate career advancement grounded in individual determination over identity-based grievance.[57][58] Social issues in her oeuvre prioritize human-scale realism, critiquing selective media portrayals of refugees while highlighting familial displacement's tangible impacts, as in "Bodies," where she simplifies crisis rhetoric to affirm shared humanity without broader geopolitical outrage.[8] This approach aligns with her stated intent in Promised Land to craft from a queer person of color's viewpoint, emphasizing difference as a source of strength and sanctuary rather than division, supported by her trajectory from immigrant roots to independent artistry.[59]Discography
Studio albums
Promised Land (2025) is Wafia's debut studio album, released digitally on January 17, 2025, through Heartburn Records under exclusive license to Nettwerk Music Group.[60] The 13-track project, running 37 minutes, was executive-produced by Sabrina Claudio in a collaborative process emphasizing intimate alt-pop and R&B elements.[2][61] Key production contributions included Kaveh Rastegar on tracks such as "The Summer Was Sweet."[53] Preceded by seven singles, the album maintains cohesive production centered on electronic-infused soundscapes and personal lyricism.[57] No prior full-length studio albums precede it, with earlier releases classified as extended plays.[62]Extended plays
Wafia released her debut extended play, XXIX, on November 20, 2015, through Future Classic.[63] The five-track EP, clocking in at approximately 15 minutes, featured the single "Heartburn" alongside tracks such as "The Raid" and "Fading Through" with guest vocals from Vancouver Sleep Clinic; it introduced her blend of electronic and R&B elements during her early independent phase.[64] Her second EP, VIII, followed on January 19, 2018, also via Future Classic.[30] Comprising six tracks totaling around 20 minutes, it included previously released singles "83 Days," "Only Love," and "Bodies," plus new material like "The Ending" featuring Finneas and an interlude with Ta-ku and Thrupence; the release tested an evolved sound with deeper emotional introspection amid her rising collaborations.[65][66] Marking her major-label shift, Good Things arrived on August 21, 2020, under Atlantic Records.[67] This five-track EP, running about 15 minutes, spotlighted upbeat R&B tracks including "Hurricane," "Pick Me," "Butterflies," "Flowers & Superpowers," and the title song "Good Things," serving as an exploratory pivot toward self-empowerment themes post-label signing.[33][34]Singles as lead artist
Wafia released "Heartburn" on November 20, 2015, as the lead single from her debut EP XXIX.[25] The track marked her breakthrough, accumulating over 57 million YouTube views.[68] "Love Somebody" followed in 2016 as a standalone single.[69] "Bodies", a solo single written amid personal family challenges regarding refugee status, was issued in September 2017.[70][71] In 2018, "I'm Good" served as a single from the EP VIII, released January 19.[25][69] The title track "Good Things" appeared in 2020, tied to her album of the same name issued August 21.[25] "Background", released April 16, 2024, introduced a shift toward guitar-driven indie pop as the lead single for her debut album Promised Land.[70][72] Subsequent singles for Promised Land (January 17, 2025) included "Nosebleed", "Say It to the Moon", "Something", "Big Thoughts", and "Crystal Ball" in 2024.[73][74][75]| Title | Year | Associated release |
|---|---|---|
| Heartburn | 2015 | XXIX EP |
| Love Somebody | 2016 | Standalone |
| Bodies | 2017 | Standalone (later VIII) |
| I'm Good | 2018 | VIII EP |
| Good Things | 2020 | Good Things album |
| Background | 2024 | Promised Land album |
| Nosebleed | 2024 | Promised Land album |
| Say It to the Moon | 2024 | Promised Land album |