Naya Ali is an Ethiopian Canadian rapper based in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. She released the first half of her debut album, ''Godspeed: Baptism (Prelude),'' in 2020.

Early life and career

Ali was born in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

and immigrated to Canada as a preschooler, growing up in

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Notre-Dame-de-Grâce ( en, Our Lady of Grace), also nicknamed NDG, is a residential neighbourhood of Montreal in the city's West End, with a population of 166,520 (2016). An independent municipality until annexed by the City of Montreal in 1910, ...

. She originally started writing poetry and rapping as a teenager, however she had stopped by her early 20's. She attended both

McGill McGill is a surname of Scottish and Irish origin, from which the names of many places and organizations are derived. It may refer to: People * McGill (surname) (including a list of individuals with the surname) * McGill family (Monrovia), a promin ...

and Concordia universities, studied public relations and held a job in marketing, before leaving to pursue a music career. She released the single "Ra Ra" in 2017 and her debut EP ''Higher Self'' in 2018. She released her debut album ''Godspeed: Baptism (Prelude)'' in 2020, through Coyote Records. The second half of the album is due in spring 2021. In 2021, she was one of five artists to receive a prize at the Black Canadian Music Awards, presented by the

SOCAN The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a Canadian performance rights organization that represents the performing rights of more than 135,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. The organization collects ...

Foundation. She was also named one of the 25 Canadian Artists to Watch Out For in 2021, by

Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

. In January 2021, she was named one of the winners of

's inaugural Black Canadian Music Awards alongside Dylan Sinclair,

Tobi ToBI (; an abbreviation of tones and break indices) is a set of conventions for transcribing and annotating the prosody of speech. The term "ToBI" is sometimes used to refer to the conventions used for describing American English specifically, whic ...

, RAAHiiM and Hunnah. In 2023, she participated in an all-star recording of

Serena Ryder Serena most commonly refers to: * Serena Williams (born 1981), professional tennis player Serena may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Serena (genre), 13th-century Occitan poetic genre * ''Serena'' (1962 film), a British crime th ...

's single "

What I Wouldn't Do "What I Wouldn't Do" is a song performed by Canadian singer-songwriter Serena Ryder, which was released as a single in November 2012. The song was written by Ryder and Jerrod Bettis for Ryder's fifth studio album, ''Harmony''. The song was relea ...

", which was released as a charity single to benefit

Kids Help Phone Kids Help Phone (french: Jeunesse, J’écoute) is a Canadian charitable organization that provides online and telephone counselling and volunteer-led, text-based support in English and French to youth across Canada. Kids Help Phone also provi ...

's Feel Out Loud campaign for youth mental health.Brent Furdyk
"Feel Out Loud: Alessia Cara, Serena Ryder & More Canadian Artists Collaborate On New Single Promoting Youth Mental Health Initiative"
''

Entertainment Tonight Canada ''ET Canada'' (previously referred to as ''Entertainment Tonight Canada'') is a Canadian entertainment news television series, using the same format as the American entertainment newsmagazine ''Entertainment Tonight''. ''ET Canada'' is a broadcas ...

'', March 2, 2023.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ali, Naya 21st-century Canadian rappers Canadian women rappers Ethiopian emigrants to Canada Musicians from Montreal Black Canadian musicians Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century women rappers Félix Award winners