For a year, Eliza Shaddad felt as though she was trying to escape from herself. Newly married, the Scottish-Sudanese musician spent 2020 writing her new record, and recording it in Cornwall with her husband, producer Ben Jackson [BJ Jackson - Childcare, To Kill a King]. “I was getting to know myself in quite a profound and new way, I guess,” she says. The previous few years had been fun but hectic – full of packed out tours in the UK and Europe with the likes of Lucy Rose, Kae Tempest and Turin Brakes and her first shows in the US. Shaddad has since found time to come to terms with new facets of her identity, as well as further delve into the fascinating heritage and traditions of her family. All of this is explored in her dazzling new album, The Woman You Want.

The daughter of a Sudanese astrophysicist father and a Scottish mother who worked internationally with the British Council, Shaddad obtained a philosophy degree before studying jazz at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Her debut EP was self-produced, and followed by a further two EPs and her debut album, 2018’s critically acclaimed Future. Along the way she has garnered praise from publications including The Times, The Independent, MOJO Magazine, Rolling Stone and The Fader, as well as radio play on the BBC (with high praise from the likes of Lauren Laverne and Huw Stephens), Apple Music 1 and Triple J. Now Shaddad is preparing to release this startling new album, the culmination of a year’s work and a moving portrait of a unique artist.
[info sheet from distr.]