The Rise of Zaituni And The Resonance Of Urban Taarab

From lying on the floor with her ear pressed against a woofer at twelve years old, to commanding festival stages with thousands singing along, Zaituni’s journey has always been led by feeling. Music first found her in the chaos of adolescence and for her, became a soothing constant that made the world make sense. Years later, that same sense of calm and truth runs through her artistry, where Swahili coastal influences of Taarab intertwine with modern R&B and pop. Her debut EP, Labor of Love, is exactly that, an earnest offering inspired by years of learning and unlearning while trusting her instincts in her devotion to craft. Speaking to TANGAZA, Zaituni reflected on her earliest musical memories, the unplanned evolution of her sound, and what it means to stand fully in her authenticity as an African woman artist.

When you look back on your childhood, what’s the earliest memory you have of feeling completely transported by music?

I think I was around 12 years old, still in primary school. I remember my mom used to gift me these CDs that had hundreds of songs. This was way before streaming was available to us. I was going through teenage-hood and was learning myself and was feeling so much confusion about who I was and who I was supposed to be. It was just chaotic. We had this woofer on the floor and I used to lie down and have my ear on the speaker and just listen to the music and afterwards, everything would make sense. I’d feel a certain calmness in my body that I'd never felt before. One of the reasons I started doing music was because I remembered how it made me feel then as a kid, and I wanted to make other people feel the same way. Also, my mom says my first words were melodies (laughs).

Your music blends taarab with modern styles like R&B and pop. When did you first realize those worlds could actually belong together? 

The genre blending was never intentional. I wasn't even supposed to do music in the first place, I was going to be a corporate baddie! The music just got too loud that I couldn’t ignore it so I chose it. I just felt the pull and I felt safe when I sang. So this was not planned. How I sound is a reflection of who I am and the scars that I have and the journey that I have gone through. 

Who were the taarab artists or vocalists who first captivated you, and are there any contemporary pop or R&B artists who influence how you shape your sound today?

My love for Taarab started with my mother’s taarab cassettes, but I can't really remember the artists because I was very young. As I grew older, I got onto Siti binti Saad, and Bi Kidude. Bi Kidude was such a courageous, audacious woman, by the standards of her time. She was the first female recorded Taarab artist. I always wonder how she was able to do all that she did during her time. She was herself regardless. She refused marriage, travelled all over the world and she knew and understood her music. She cared for her artistry and herself and she preserved herself as a person. She expressed what came naturally to her. Her music was literally her thoughts and she was so true to herself. She's such an inspiration to me as someone who strives to be as authentic as I can be while reflecting the times.

Siti binti Saad used to invite people to her house to talk about what was happening around and would freestyle the news to her audience. Both artists were African women who stayed true to themselves and that inspires me in my journey as an artist. I'd like to be able to walk in my authenticity as an African woman and still  be able to express myself in the magnitude that they did. When it comes to contemporary influences, most people would be surprised by this, but I am a big Beyoncé fan.

What does your creative process look like?

With some songs, I struggle. And with others, I don’t because they come to me. I've been writing a lot recently, and been around a lot of songwriters like Ywaya in writing camps. It’s been interesting, noticing what my writing styles are. For me, melody is key. The reason why my music flows is because of the emphasis on melody. It can stand on itself without instrumentation, and if without instrumentation, I can still feel the song’s flow and rhythm and the essence, then my job is done. I also find it easy to start with the melody - I’m blessed with melodies. I’ve been humming all my life. It calms me down, grounds me and feels natural. When I like whatever I’m humming, I’ll record it , but I don’t always do that. I hear words inside the melody and piece them together and the song comes together. 

Which of your songs feel most personal to you and why?

Ananipenda, because I felt the power of my artistry through the song - I was pouring my heart out. I wrote it for somebody when I was being a bit delusional about love, during a session with Waithaka. He’d come to the country from the US and was working with different artists. Waithaka started playing keys, and I just started singing and sung it in a specific way because I wanted to believe what I was singing so badly. It was my honest truth, and I just let myself fall into the music. It opened a creative portal that I hadn't discovered before. 

Tamu has gone viral on TikTok and is in over 22,000 posts. What was your reaction the first time you saw your song blowing up online?

The first time it blew up was 2023. I then played it for Nakili Sessions with Mutoriah and Anariko. The performance went viral and became one of the platform's most viewed performances. People started knowing me and it was so surreal. The reception was really cool. Tamu taught me to be myself, the song was just me being my cheeky, lover-girl self. I didn't expect it to become that big of a hit, especially because it blew up a year  after I released it. I feel like the song was God’s gift to me for the 7 years that I have been in this industry. It was very effortless, it was just a fun song for myself.

Your collaboration with We Are Nubia is also getting a lot of attention. How did that partnership start, and what excited you most about it?

The song had been written by Ywaya and We Are Nubia, and was already recorded and mixed and mastered and done. I got a call, asking me to get in the studio as soon as possible. It’s funny because I’d already written in my journal about wanting to collaborate with We Are Nubia. Because I already had the intention to work with them, it was a no-brainer. I was in the studio with them the next day at 10am. I wrote two verses, they picked one and the rest is history.

You just released your debut EP Labor of Love. Why was this the right time for you to reintroduce yourself with this body of work? 

In a world of electronic music, I felt the push to take a completely different route and do what makes me happy. After years of changing, tweaking, mixing and mastering, rethinking, I feel like it was just time. My biggest problem was that I wanted my music to sound a certain way, but still be at par with the industry and what people listen to. The reality though, was that there was no way my music could sound like other people’s and I needed to understand that and stop putting so much pressure on myself and my team to get to more acceptable sounds. It was the right time for me to be completely myself. The reception to Tamu was also really affirming, because it showed  me that many people could connect with this sound, so I knew this was the right time.

Why did you choose this title and what does it personally signify to you?

The title came even before I decided to do this body of work. I think in 2019, I told Anariko, my guitarist and producer, that I would name my first project Labor of Love. As time passed, it took on a deeper meaning. It hasn’t been easy doing music in this economy and in the world we live in . There isn't enough infrastructure to help artists thrive. It has been hard and has truly been a labor of love. I also did it for love, because I’ve always loved music. So it was truly a labor of love.

What was the creative process like? Were there any particular tracks that proved challenging to bring to life? 

These songs were not written at the same time. Sasa Hivi was written in 2022, Huyo was difficult to write and come up with melodies and rhythm to go with. I even asked for help from a writer friend. TikTok was an easy song to write. I chose these songs because they sold a specific story effectively. Pressure came with a lot of pressure and I wrote it in early 2023. Nipende is the oldest song, having been written in 2018 as a class assignment for Sauti Academy. Naenda was written in 2019. Inakuuma was written in 2022 or 20223 , I'm not sure. They were written about different points of my life and my love life. The creative process behind the individual tracks is very different, but they all came from melodies. I sing and hum a lot, but when I find a melody that interests me, I keep it. 

What was it like, getting to perform the project for thousands of fans on the Blankets and Wine stage? 

First of all, the  fact that people knew the words was so nice!  I didn’t have to teach the lyrics. I have been a gigging artist for 7, 8 years now and I’ve been on many stages. Sometimes you have to teach people your songs to create an engaging experience. It’s tough. So not having to do  that, and with such a big crowd was so nice. It was an ego boost (laughs). I could've stopped singing and they would have continued singing. That was amazing and it affirmed me as an artist. Even now as I watch fan videos of the show, I can’t even hear myself because of how loud the crowd is. Even when I changed arrangements, like I did with Ananipenda, they sang the original and that lets me know that they really do listen to me. That was really affirming.

Is there a version of you that only exists on stage? How is she different from your everyday self?

Yes. She’s confident and trusts her intuition. She’s spontaneous and very sexy on stage. She’s comfortable in her sexuality, she’s slow and feminine and sensual. When I’m on stage, I’m much more focused and present and cannot think about anything else other than what I’m doing at that moment.

Looking back, now that the EP is out, what have you learned about yourself as an artist and as a woman through the process of making and sharing this project? 

Trusting in myself. If people knew how much time I spent pacing, listening to Tamu, tweaking the tiniest details. When releasing the track, it felt like we were rushing, so I wasn’t sure that what I released was good enough, and was even more surprised that people loved it. I was questioning my choices, especially the higher adlibs throughout the chorus, but those are the things that people love the most in the song and that taught me to trust myself and instincts.

When you’re not making music, where do you go or what do you do to recharge creatively?

Cook! I love cooking, I love cleaning, I love putting things in order. It gives me so much joy to see books arranged well. One of the ways I express and show my love is through these things. Order and structure are very important to me.

Looking ahead, five years from now, what's one thing you hope to have achieved? 

I don’t like this question (laughs). First of all, as an artist, I'll do my best. I’d like to win a Grammy, I’m not sure if that’ll be possible in 5 years but that would be really nice. In the meantime, I’ll do my best to share my art with the world. I’d love to have an album out, a proper album, and follow it up with an EP with heavy Taarab influences. I know my music is very urban taarab but I’d love to hone in on the Taarab vibe. I'd love to intentionally immerse myself in that and even hold a residency in coast, and I’d  love to go on a big tour, and take this music to new places.