Jessie Reyez is the latest amazing artist to come out of Toronto.
The 26-year-old picked up the guitar early on in life and began songwriting while in high school. After graduating, she decided she wanted to pursue a music career.
This year, Reyez was featured on Calvin Harris' Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1 album on a song called "Hard To Love," and released her debut EP Kiddo, which features her single "Figures," a song inspired by a breakup she went through.
"'Figures' was a time capsule of a breakup that I went through,” Reyez told iHeartRadio. “I was just going through it, and crying, and sad, and happy to be away from home, because I was across the pond in Europe at the time. And I was given the opportunity to just let it out on the mic."
Reyez, who was born to Colombian parents, described her hometown as a "mosaic" of different cultures and races. She explained her roots have helped to influence her songs.
"I feel like [Toronto] is a mosaic of cultures, it's a mosaic of races,” she said. “It's cool because I come from an immigrant family, so it's nice to be able to have grown up somewhere where it's normal to wave your parents' flag, and wave the Canadian flag, and wave both proudly, and you can hold on to your roots.
“Spanish is my first language. I didn't learn English until I went to school. And I think that was facilitated by the fact that I was born in Toronto."
Not only is Reyez very in touch with her roots, she's also very family oriented. In fact, quite a few family members had a hand in her Kiddo EP's cover art — her nephew, her niece and her cousin.
"My niece is actually the little kid on it. My nephew did the calligraphy, the typing on it. That's his writing. And, my cousin Jenny Castillo Celly, did the photography,” she explained.
It was a team effort.”
Original article by Nicole Mastrogiannis at iHeartRadio