Zaki Ibrahim (BC)
South African-Canadian artist Zaki Ibrahim is a globally distinguished singer, songwriter, and producer known for making music that defies any one genre.
Ibrahim has emerged as one of Canada’s hip hop and soul icons, collecting two Polaris Music Prize nominations (shortlisted in 2013 and longlisted in 2018) and a Juno nomination for R&B/Soul Recording of the Year in 2009. Her works have lived comfortably in the art world, broken through as South African house music anthems, and been featured in several film and television placements (Suits, For Coloured Girls, Othello Burning).
Afropunk has called Ibrahim’s music “futuristic soul at its best, blending retro R&B vibes with electronic production that will take you out of this world.” Pitchfork has said: “Zaki Ibrahim has gathered new methods, sounds, and communities, recombining old ideas to make something all her own. This analog/digital, past/future, sensory/tactical approach to music-making is her hallmark.”
Ibrahim has opened for Erykah Badu, Saul Williams, and the Roots. She has been lauded for her innovation and creative vision in her collaborations and co-writes with the Hyperdub family, Okzharp, and Young Fathers. Since releasing her first full-length album, Every Opposite (2013), Ibrahim has given the world snippets of her artistic prowess. The four-track Red Bull Studios Cape Town Orbit EP (2016), with accompanying sci-fi planetarium art installation performances, marked the onset of Ibrahim’s next musical saga. The last five years have been authentically nomadic, whether she was headlining Spring Festival Series in Cairo and Beirut, playing debut release shows in Berlin while blissfully pregnant, or working with jazz legends such as Mulatu Astatke’s musical director Abegasu Shiota at African Jazz Village in Ethiopia, noting both literally and symbolically that her relevance as an artist is solid and that she has only just begun.
Zaki Ibrahim independently released her much-anticipated second full-length album, The Secret Life of Planets, in 2018. Immediately afterward, she embarked on a five-month sabbatical in South Africa. She now bases herself in Canada but has once again set out abroad, this time on her first ever world headlining tour.