Zāna’s new single “Nah”

A purveyor of the genre called “gypsy pop”, a blending of Arabic and Latin musical influences, Zāna has pursued her musical ambitions from an early age and earned her Bachelor’s in Professional Music from the prestigious Berklee College of Music before embarking on her musical career in earnest. The video for her preceding single “Call Ya” garnered over a million YouTube views and proves her work with five star songwriters like Tim Mitchell and George Noriega has paid off in helping elevating her art to a level where she can enjoy mass appeal rather than appealing to a small audience. Her new single and video “Nah” continues illustrating her growth without compromise while exhibiting the same personal touch thus far defining her art. It is obvious her talents are growing with each new release and we can expect her to continue ascending into the stratosphere of modern pop music.

One of the things grabbing me about the marriage of song and music video is how they dovetail into one another with such completeness. All too often artists film promotional videos that scarcely have anything to do with the tracks they are intended to promote – instead, viewers are treated to a series of disconnected images and scenes with no obvious connection to the lyric material. There are no such lapses here. “Nah”, instead, relies on a storytelling approach that actually strengthen the track rather than acting in unfortunate opposition to the material. It gives us perfect visual accompaniment to the lyric’s depiction of a beautiful woman enduring a fusillade of hamfisted sexual remarks when she goes out for a night with her friends. It even goes a step further by adopting a light comic approach to the subject

Her voice is full of calm self assurance coming across from the first. You can hear how she has taken a natural step forward from her fine performance on the song “Call Ya” and the lack of self consciousness in her vocal makes for a more inviting listening experience. There’s no hesitation. She weaves her way in a very rhythmic fashion through the song’s verses and tailors her voice to lock into the instrumental accompaniment. Her lyrics for the song are intelligent while remaining plain spoken throughout and feature some crackling wordplay that makes for an even more enjoyable ride. She zeros in on the song’s experience without ever coming off as pretentious.

The instrumentation is interesting. Her gypsy pop influences rise to the fore as a potent blend of Latin flavored percussion and near lyrical, yet physically provoking, guitar playing. I cannot applaud her enough for turning her back on electronic elements in favor of traditional instruments and it helps put the track over the top. Zāna’s new single “Nah” has a great chorus as well certain to stick in the memory – it may be the crowning touch for a track that will push her burgeoning career a little further down the road towards fame and global notice. She is a compelling young artist and obviously in love with what she does.

Mindy McCall