The American Song Contest has finally arrived, and so far, 11 artists have performed their songs to win a spot in the semi-finals! Hueston, who is representing Rhode Island, has already qualified to the semi-final via the jury vote, with the rest of the artists waiting to learn their fate once public televote results are announced.
TODAY, 11 new artists will be showcasing their original songs in the hope to bring their states to the semi-finals. Almira Zaky is one of 11 artists performing their original songs in today’s qualifier round. Almira, a rising Indonesian-American R&B singer-songwriter, will be representing her home-state VIRGINIA with the song ‘Over You’ to which she has recently released a sneak peek for via her instagram account.
Almira describes her music as R&B, with hip-hop and soul influence. She has been known for writing her own music and using her own life experiences and emotions to inspire the theme, sound and lyrical content of her songs. Last year, she released her single ‘Miss Me’, which has had over 150,000 streams on Spotify and over 110,000 views on YouTube.
More recently, she has launched her debut EP ‘Learn To Love’, which is available on Spotify and her YouTube Channel. ‘Clarity’ is one of her latest singles and she has since released a music video which was directed and produced by herself and Emmanuel Porquin. ‘Clarity’ is a smooth and soothing song that Almira wrote to channel her emotional and very personal journey of dealing with grief while finding clarity within her life.
She looks up to artists such as Kehlani, Ariana Grande, Jojo and Teyana Taylor which she describes as ‘women with a lot of soul and a lot of emotion and that have experienced a lot of life’. Almira shared with us that she also admires, and is inspired by, artists that communicate their emotional experiences and ways of dealing with life through their songs and songwriting.
By entering the American Song Contest, she aims to transmit relatability and representation as, while growing up, ‘she didn’t find a lot of women that look like her or that had the same background as her’. Almira comes from Indonesian roots and is also muslim, so she is looking to represent women like her and improve visibility of her community in the United States and beyond.
To get to know Almira better and learn about her American Song Contest experience and plans, watch Alesia’s FULL interview with her in the video below!
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