Adia Victoria

Adia Victoria (born July 22, 1986) is an American singer and songwriter. In addition to playing and writing music, she writes poetry. She is currently based in Nashville.

Musical style

Victoria has described her music as "gothic blues". Critics and journalists have classified her style as blues, folk, Southern Gothic, indie rock, swamp blues, and soul music. However, her position seems to have softened as, in 2022, she performed at a nominations event hosted by the Americana Music Association and was nominated for their Emerging Artist of the Year award at their 21st awards ceremony.

Biography Adia Victoria was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina and is one of six siblings. Her father is Trinidadian. She was raised as a Seventh-day Adventist and she attended church schools until in the 6th grade, her mother enrolled her in public school. Victoria and her siblings often spent time with her maternal grandparents who lived near Campobello. Her family also left the Adventist church before Victoria attended high school, which allowed her to explore music she hadn't been exposed to before, like Kurt Cobain, Miles Davis and Fiona Apple. In 2007, she left New York for Atlanta. She chose Nashville as a place where she could live anonymously. In Nashville, she earned her GED and then took French in college.

Her personal "look" was noticed by Vogue for its "Afropunk" roots. However, Victoria states that she doesn't like to be "fetishized" for her looks, saying, "People think that because you are attractive, you owe the world something, to let them consume you."

Victoria's first single release was "Stuck In the South", which was described on All Things Considered as a "very swampy mysterious kind of slow-burning song." Rolling Stone describes her as "PJ Harvey covering Loretta Lynn at a haunted debutante ball." Her live performances are described by Wondering Sound as angry and "furious and feral."

Victoria's full-length debut, Beyond the Bloodhounds, was produced by Roger Moutenot, The name of the album is a reference to Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs. Canvasback is her current record label. In 2020 Victoria released the song "South Gotta Change", executive produced by T Bone Burnett.

In August 2021, Victoria released "Magnolia Blues" as the lead single from her upcoming third studio album, A Southern Gothic. Jon Freeman of Rolling Stone described the song as "an eerie, acoustic-guitar-driven tune that expands to thick bass and a ghostly orchestra of strings and banjo." A Southern Gothic was released on September 17, 2021.

Discography

Studio albums Beyond the Bloodhounds (2016)

EPs Sea of Sand EP (2014) "South Gotta Change" (2020) "Magnolia Blues" (2021) "Ain't Killed Me Yet" (2022)

Compilation tracks "La pour ça" Standing At The Gates, The Songs of Nada Surf's Let Go "Backwards Blues" 30 Days, 30 Songs (Now called 1,000 Days 1,000 Songs) Day 10, Song 11 "7th Amendment (Caravan)" 27 The Most Perfect Album "Detroit Moan" An exclusive unreleased Victoria Spivey cover posted on Rookiemag.com in 2016. Link was still valid in 2019.