Ready for a scorching summer, 19-year-old Toronto-born R&B singer and songwriter Liyah Katana serves up a new single and music video entitled “TOXIC” today via Nycesound/ARTium Records/Def Jam Recordings.
The track dips into island vibes with its steel drum-driven groove and head-nodding bounce. Meanwhile, Liyah’s verses simmer into a seductive refrain as she confesses, “What we do is toxic, but somehow I can’t stop it.” Maintaining this momentum, it concludes with an invitation, “Come pull up on me.” In the accompanying video directed by Charlton Visuals, Liyah is found in the middle of a date before she takes over the dancefloor with show-stopping choreography.
Katana’s latest single, lands in the wake of “STR8.” The latter has amassed nearly half-a-million streams and is at the top of Soundcloud’s Top 50 R&B Charts, in addition to 452K YouTube views on the music video. Earning critical acclaim, Complex Canada touted it among the “Best New Canadian Tracks This Week,” going on to praise it as “an ode to solidarity, finding strength in herself rather than searching for validation in others.” YouKnowIGotSoul also plugged the track, while Bong Mines Entertainment proclaimed, “she sings passionately over a piano-laden melody that swells with the weight of her raw emotions.”
Next up, she presents her much-anticipated debut EP 8 this summer.
Liyah realized the power of her voice as a kid in Mississauga, Canada. Her parents played classic hip-hop and R&B, and she participated in a praise group and recorded covers of her own at just 12-years-old. With key inspirations ranging from Whitney Houston and Brandy to Kendrick Lamar, she immersed herself in writing and recording. As the Global Pandemic quieted the world, she scoured YouTube for beats and wrote her own lyrics to them. She caught the attention of Nycesound Production Founder Terry “T-Nyce” Opoku and inked a deal with the label. In 2021, she gained traction with the fan favorite Foreva Liyah EP, piling up millions of streams. In its wake, FLAUNT raved, “Liyah is an artist that brings back the creativity of R&B, the type that makes people feel the love that they felt back in 90’s records,” while KAZI. proclaimed, “Liyah’s comfortability in her own skin is infectious, allowing younger generations to gravitate towards her.” At the top of 2023, Nycesound cemented a partnership with ARTium and Def Jam Recordings, positioning Liyah as the alliance’s flagship inaugural artist.
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