NEWS
DIYALA : New name on roster
Diyala
Diyala is an MC/vocalist from Varazdin, Croatia. She lived in Brooklyn, New York in her childhood. In 1999 Diyala started MC-ing in Croatia. Her main influences besides hip-hop artists were alternative rock bands like Tool and Marilyn Manson. Her unique style and music is often described as experimental Hip Hop. Before she went on to pursue a solo career, she had several projects and collaborations: a band Plag (later Many’s Insane), Tristosixty crew and MC Edo Maajka (one of the best selling and most acclaimed MC’s in Croatia).
In February, 2006 she published her first single “Raw”. Slovenian director Mitja Okorn made a great video and soon “Raw” premiered on MTV Adria‘s Top 20 charts and held the first place on Croatian TV show called “Briljanteen” for 20 weeks, which contributed to her popularity. That opened up a chance for Diyala to do lots of live acts trough out Slovenia. Simply put – Slovenia fell in love with Diyala’s music.
After all the hard work and 10 long years in music business, the hardly anticipated album “Rapstract” was released in October of 2008. “Rapstract” is just what the name says – it’s something new, abstract, something you never heard before – deep, raw and minimalistic, but delivers incredibly strong and powerful message. Her second video “A Girl Like Me” from Rapstract, was made by Irena Mihalinec who works with Sage Francis and Strange Famous Records.
On March 5th 2009 Diyala got nominated and took the title – Best female performer in 2009 on Zlatna Koogla awards (Croatian music awards), an award that gave Diyala recognition as much as by the media but by the voters themselves.
Having the chance to collaborate with Reverse Engineering (a Hip Hop / Electro / Trip Hop group from Switzerland) on her album, Diyala gave back by her guest appearance on RE’s album Highly Complex Machinery with WORLD IN REVERSE. Again she got good critics and a chance for her to be a part of Europe’s quality and successful underground artistry!
Her second album titled D.i.Y (2010/2011) was self-released on Soundcloud 2011. She pulled a parallel with her name and meaning to DO IT YOURSELF or D.I.Y / DIYALA. Once again her album got good critics. She had a collaboration with BunZero from Belgium, a well respected veteran within the dubstep scene, having DJ’ed for over 20 years on the song titled – CravingZ which led to having the almighty UK Dubstep/DJ/producer – Distance give her props on his radio show and acknowledge this collaboration as a Must/Hear! Track “Wander” from D.I.Y. album got turned to a great video, directed by Filip Filkovic Philatz. A song bringing out the most on feeling locked inside, used and wandering! Another great video made for a song recorded with Reverse Engineering called “Heart Juice” was, once again, directed by Filip Filkovic Philatz.
Diyala will once again appear on upcoming album of Reverse Engineering including B DOLAN, BLUE RUM and many more. Her latest collaboration was on the song “In For It” with Danza Macabra, an electro group whose popularity is growing among the Berlin house music community.
She is currently working on new songs, two new videos, and announced she will be back with her 3rd album saying: “This album will be all I’ve learned through my 15 years of experience in the music industry, focusing on new materials as never before… I’m so more aware of my strength as an artist, as a mother now and as a human being – I’m ready to give my all”.
ALBUMS:
RAPSTRACT
DATES : AVAILABLE FOR BOOKING IN 2015
OVERSTAND
January 30th, 2015
