蜜芽传媒

Both Assia from Morocco and Hevi from Tanzania tell TIA that their most important musical influence is a female artist from the USA. But they also both proudly represent their respective countries, sing in their native languages and draw upon traditional music.

In the case of Assia, who describes her sound as "interior music", her musical hero is Billie Eilish. Assia loves Eilish's soft voice, and the way she talks in detail about emotions and lays herself bare in her songs. Assia says her song Layli represents her best. It's a soulful, soaring love song to the night.

Hevi is shaking up the bongo flava-dominated musical landscape of Tanzania. Her sound is a mixture of bongo flava, afrobeats, amapiano, rumba and RnB, and she says she admires American rapper and singer Doja Cat because she too mixes up genres. Hevi's popular songs include My Rider, Trabaye and Only You.