Why Haven’t We Heard of the Queen of Soul, NSTASIA?

“Do you believe in heaven
I got a new religion
Cause I wanted something better now
Then I found us together
I’m living for the feeling”

—From the song, “New Religion”

As an avid soul searcher when it comes to music, I have realized that the last couple of years I’ve been listening to R&B/soul the most out of all genres, and I’ve also become a fan of more emerging female R&B artists. On a regular basis, I do enjoy most of the songs created by female artists such as SZA, Jorja Smith, Solange, Jhene Aiko, as well as transpiring artists like Ari Lennox. Most recently, I discovered another gem artist known as NSTASIA, and let me tell you, when I first listened to her one particular song, “New Religion”— I would be lying if I didn’t admit that it hit me in the feels quite hard. She has this soulful spirit coming off of her voice; her aura, her sassy curls, and just everything about her screams queen.

To further display her talents, she has written songs for big artists like Usher, Macy Gray, Pharrell, and of course, the OG queen Beyoncé. To NSTASIA, writing music is a form of storytelling, and you can definitely tell when you listen to her songs because they all have an inherent storyline at some point. She grew up in a small town in North Carolina, but moved to Atlanta, the home of music, in pursuit of her dreams to sing and just live through music— as she was constantly encouraged to do so by her passion driven father.

“I want to inspire realness and storytelling. I just want to be relatable because everyone goes through what I sing about.” -NSTASIA

NSTASIA is still an emerging artist, however, she has already received approval from successful, popular artists like the ones I’ve mentioned above, and that says a lot about how skilled she is. She did give me SZA vibes initially, but their voices are different. NSTASIA has a deep, yet feminine voice, and to sum it up: she definitely knows what soul is and how it should sound. She covers heartbreaks, unconditional love, craved sex, fuck boys, and everything in between where you’re bound to find something that you can relate to. Versatility is another one of her tricks. One day you’ll be thinking how soulful her music is, but the next moment you’ll realize how she also has her own “hood lyrics” to give it an extra oomph of uniqueness. Whatever she sings about, you’ll feel it yourself as she felt in those moments of creating each song. I love her self-assured presence, and I still can’t emphasize enough how we’ve slept on this sweet talent…

Before you regret it, check out this queen of soul:

-Chloe