Malaika enchants with romantic single ‘Stop for a Minute’

Meet Malai­ka, a young singer-song­writer mak­ing enchant­i­ng jazz-led pop music.

‘Stop for a Minute’ is her sec­ond sin­gle. Pro­duced and co-writ­ten by Gram­my-nom­i­nat­ed song­writer John Beck, Malai­ka reels you in with her lumi­nous vocals over a bed of brass and synth keys.

Based in Leeds, Malai­ka lists Amy Wine­house, Erkyah Badu, Nina Simone and Esper­an­za Spald­ing among her influences.

Her music – and indeed her style (as seen in her video for debut sin­gle ‘I Don’t Feel the Same’) – gives off an aura of mat­inée jazz: all vin­tage dress­es, low-lit jazz bars and vocals filled with woozy longing.

She’s been hon­ing her skills for some years, and is now start­ing to get recog­nised for her tal­ent. In 2016, she was award­ed Best Jazz/Blues act at the Unsigned Music Awards, and she also sup­port­ed British pop singer, Jones, on her UK tour.

And just this week she per­formed a gor­geous acoustic ses­sion for BBC Intro­duc­ing.

Lis­ten to ‘Stop for a Minute’ below.

You can fol­low Malai­ka on Twit­ter and Insta­gram.

Image: cour­tesy of Malaika

Tags: Independent artists, Jazz music, Leeds musicians, Malaika, Music singles, Pop music, UK music, Unsigned artists