Singer/songwriter
City: Carman, Manitoba
Country of Origin: Morocco
Named one of Variety’s “Artists to Watch for the 2022 Grammys,” Vogue’s “Style Stars Set to Make 2022 Exciting,” PEOPLE’s “Talented Emerging Artists Making Their Mark on the Musical Landscape,” and Entertainment Weekly’s “Artists to Watch in 2022,” Faouzia recently shared “RIP, Love (Acoustic Live),” a stripped-bare new version of her worldwide hit single, “RIP, Love,” available now at all DSPs and streaming services. Inspired by the Moroccan and Arabic music of Faouzia’s childhood, the original version of “RIP, Love” has proven a truly universal sensation, earning over 107M worldwide streams since its release earlier this year. Produced by T.I Jakke (Ava Max, Lady Gaga, RedOne) with additional production by Tor Eimon and co-written by T.I Jakke, Fransisca Hall (Lauren Spencer-Smith, Imagine Dragons, Illenium), and Faouzia, the track is joined by an official lyric video currently boasting over 48Mviews via YouTube. In addition, an official “RIP, Love” dance video has earned more than 5M views.
“RIP, Love” is among the many highpoints found on Faouzia’s acclaimed debut project, CITIZENS, available for streaming and download. The eight-song collection – which has been featured in over 1.8M TikTok creates, amassing more than 4B total views across the platform – also includes such international favourite as “Puppet,” “Anybody Else,” “Thick and Thin,” and Faouzia & John Legend’s smash “Minefields,” the latter of which is accompanied by an official music video that has already earned over 132M views via YouTube.
CITIZENS has been met by wide-ranging applause from media outlets including Ones To Watch, which declared it “a crystallization of everything (Faouzia’s) worked toward…Over the course of eight moving tracks, the future star carves out an impressive emotional depth, largely carried by jaw-dropping vocal feats.” Faouzia is “the pop star of the future,” raved Consequence in an exclusive Track By Track feature interview, adding, “CITIZENS seems like it could be the first grand hello of an artist primed to make a splash in the 2020.”
With over 1.1B global streams to date, Faouzia has a combined social reach of over 11M followers. Boasting over 2M YouTube subscribers, 2M Instagram followers and more than 3.4M Tik Tok followers, Faouzia has cemented herself as a surefire artist to watch. With collaborations with John Legend, Kelly Clarkson, David Guetta, and more, the landmark star has been praised in global publications spanning VOGUE, Harper’s Bazaar, PEOPLE, ELLE, Rolling Stone, Genius, Seventeen, Billboard, and Uproxx, to name but a few.
“My favourite thing is hearing that one of my songs helped someone feel motivated or empowered, or even helped them to have a good cry – which sometimes is all you need,” Faouzia says. “I really believe that immersing yourself in music can help you through the tough times in life, and I always hope that my songs can do that for everyone.”
Faouzia Ouihya was born in Casablanca, Morocco on July 5, 2000. About a year after being born, her family moved to Canada where they ended up settling in a small rural town, Carman. It was then that she started taking piano lessons at the age of 5. Her parents made sure to instill Moroccan traditions in her upbringing by teaching her Arabic, playing traditional music, and wearing traditional clothing for special occasions. These traditions inspire her craft as a musical artist today as she implements trills and Moroccan sounds in her songs.