Fatai has a soulful voice and is an artist who looks at the bigger picture.

She’s been with her vocal coach and mentor David Jaanz for about 10 years and was lucky enough to grow up as a kid under his unique training methods that included emotion-centred singing, which built the foundations of gospel and improvisation. This was opposed to learning the standard classical training methods that focus on technique and scales.

With her signature purple hair and a voice that gives you goosebumps, Fatai is certainly someone who catches your attention and holds it. Watch her videos and you’ll understand what we mean. Her soulful voice lends itself perfectly to genres such as soul, gospel and r’n’b, but Fatai also enjoys the complexity of jazz.

“The purple hair signifies royalty,” she says.  “It represents who I am as a child of God before anything else.”

This spirited young lady would spend her summers at Mordialloc beach with her family where her creative juices flowed as smoothly as a refreshing drink on a hot day.  “Nature speaks to me like nothing else. I’m always inspired by what the ocean has to say to me through the waves about life and its unpredictable ways of crashing on you when you least expect it.”

Chicago is now her physical home, but as she prepares to embark on her second tour of the US her heart still beats for Melbourne. She explains that in her opinion Melbourne has some of the best and most unique talent in the world, but the Australian community could do a better job of supporting the homegrown talent in our own backyard. Instead, as a collective, Australians are so heavily influenced by the international markets. 

“Uniqueness is power, and we need to realise this, recognise it and take risks once in a while.”

Music is both a portal for self-expression as well a tool to tell stories. In that respect she draws inspiration from her own journey - from painful experiences to joyful moments - to inspire her music. This she believes is the connecting point for the listener when they are able to relate to the situation that the artist sings about. Fatai’s belief in this is so concrete that she prefers to not listen to music for inspiration, instead gaining creativeness from the life happening around her.

“Life speaks to me when I’m living in it, and not listening to it through headphones.”

As she applies her passion in the studio working on a single that should be out before the end of the year, she added some fantastic advice for our Frankly Frankston readers: “Just be you. Work hard but stay humble. Use your voice to make a positive change, and remember that music is always bigger than you.”