Rising Music Star Alya On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

9 min readNov 18, 2020

You will be alright, you got this, it will work, don’t wait, believe in yourself. Unfortunately for me, I was alone on my way as an artist, but had many advisers and “helpers,” which you should ignore if you have a vision. I used to correct my sound, dress like someone advised, write to be successful. Don’t do it. Be as authentic and sincere as possible to be noticed, and if not, that was not the road for you. Life has something better to offer.

Asa part of our series about rising music stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Alya.

Just under a decade ago, after enjoying a lengthy and successful career as a TV news personality and press secretary in Moscow, ALYA left her native Russia to boldly pursue her musical dreams in the United States. Now, having artfully chronicled her personal struggles and triumphs as an immigrant and evolving artist assimilating to an entirely different culture on her stylistically eclectic, well-received 2019 debut album Ten Years of Solitude, the multi-talented singer/songwriter shares deeper universal truths about the experience of female immigrants on her heart-tugging latest single “American Beauty.”

Produced by legendary Grammy, Emmy and Dove Award winning engineer/producer Bill Schnee, the edgy and soulful, hypnotically infectious song opens as if it’s a seductive expression of finding romantic love. Yet ALYA’s larger socially conscious intentions come clear as she follows with the lines “We never know if it’s love or disaster. . .For you I would risk everything” and when she powers into the hook, “Where do you go to find a diamond buried in the rough/Traveled around the world to find my American Beauty.”

While the original track has racked up nearly 500,000 Spotify streams, ALYA also released an explosive remix by Grammy winning producer Dave Aude (Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars) that is currently storming up the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, reaching #16 after only two weeks.

To expand her audience further, the singer has also released a Tropical/Latin-fired remix by DJ Cruz. ALYA further illuminates her inspiration behind “American Beauty” in a visually stunning yet often gritty video for the track that she directed herself. The clip, available on YouTube, intersperses the singer’s performance with depictions of the hopes, aspirations, struggles, disappointments and optimistic breakthroughs of women of different cultures (including Asian, Middle Eastern and Hispanic) pursuing careers in the arts (music, fashion), sports (boxing) and the military.

ALYA’s highly anticipated follow-up single “Pleasure Is Mine,” is a steamy/sultry yet dramatic and at times symphonic mid-tempo expression of female empowerment via an embrace of the unique gifts of one’s sensuality and sexuality. While some may use a women’s sexuality to make them feel like victims, the singer sees it as a true superpower. In the middle of the tune, amidst Schnee’s booming production, ALYA segues into a brief lyrical piano and vocal interlude that, like the entire track itself, draws from a timeless Russian folk song she grew up. That traditional tune included dynamic symbols (a woman drowning in a river and women talking to that river as a friend) that connect with the song’s contemporary theme.

Both thematically and musically, these tracks — and those she is working on for her upcoming sophomore album — are worlds away from the eclectic mix she shared on Ten Years of Solitude, a true hymn of self-discovery produced by ALYA and David Holman (No Doubt, Bush, Olivia Newton-John). The collection featured an eclectic mix of modern pop, Japanese folk, trip hop, electronica, 60’s surf rock, jazz and classical music. For fans who want to immerse deeper into both her music and the visual side of her artistry, the singer has launched the “ALYA” augmented reality app, which transforms a handmade old school styled cassette version of the album into a boombox when you place it in front of the phone. Users can enter into an interactive 360-degree visual experience and open portals to 360 videos, while also allowing them to rediscover random objects of everyday life through the lens of the phone.

“When I came to America, I was truly looking for my life’s purpose,” ALYA says. “It took me five solid years to figure it out, and those passions were driven by experiencing so many challenges assimilating, integrating and connecting to American society while all the larger immigration became part of the political discourse. Perhaps trying too hard, I didn’t feel like myself for a long time, but as time went on, everything fell into place. I wanted Ten Years of Solitude to reflect all those years of hard work and basically growing up as an artist. All the songs were very different in tone, reflecting different years of my life melodically and lyrically. I even sang one song in Japanese to reflect a year living and working in Japan as a special correspondence long before I moved to the U.S.

“American Beauty’ is the first song representing the new era of my musical journey, where I’m looking deep into who I am today and connecting my experiences as a new American with the countless stories of women who have also come here and started building new lives from scratch. The song is a story about and for women who came to the U.S., or any country really, to find new opportunities and become their best selves. I am letting them know how strong, beautiful and unique they are — and that we are united in our quest to discover the beauty of this country that we chose out of any other. It’s about the universal story of immigrants — which unfortunately also touches on the nightmares going on at our border due to today’s political climate. I wanted to create a song that would be warm and inspiring, soothing and supportive of them as well — a reminder of the true values of America that we come here to embrace.”

Growing up in Oryol, a city in Western Russia known for its literary heritage, ALYA attended regular school while studying classical music at local music school, where she learned accordion (playing as a soloist in the choir) and began developing her talents as a classically trained opera singer. Born during the Soviet era, her exposure to Western Music was limited to The Beatles, Bon Jovi and David Bowie, but she developed a passion for classical music and opera.

Despite her musical gifts, after graduating with a journalism degree from Moscow State University and later receiving a Master’s in Economics, she pursued a more practical career route as a journalist. She became a successful correspondent and one of only a few women covering major military and political stories. for the largest state and independent media company in Russia (Ria Novosti). Among her achievements was uncovering one of the largest bullying incidents in the Russian Army (Sergey Sychev) Thanks to her coverage, an uproar began among human rights activists across the world. She later worked as a special correspondent in Japan and press secretary for the Vice Chairman of the Russian state Duma in the Lower House of Parliament. Yet even as her star rose in journalistic circles, she was busy behind the scenes writing songs and performing with a band.

“My fellow artists understand the need to let the music out,” ALYA says “No matter how successful you are in another field, that creativity starts eating you from the inside if you don’t find proper channels for it. People who know me from childhood would totally understand the career I have now. Those I worked with in Parliament might raise their eyebrows!”

Complementing her career as an artist, ALYA, along with her husband, are driving positive social change through their philanthropic work to help low-income college students, advance breakthrough medical research, and improve the lives of pets and their families. They recently donated 20,000 laptops to help Los Angeles Community College students who were forced out of the classroom when schools were closed due to the pandemic. They also announced the $150,000 Michelson Prizes for Human Immunotherapy and Vaccine Research, which were awarded in August to young researchers on the front lines of finding ways to prevent disease. ALYA also has supported other artists and arts education through the Grammy Foundation’s MusicCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.

“My music is simply a platform to tell timeless stories that harken back to tales from my Russian heritage while addressing and influencing broad social issues and empowering people, especially women, to fully realize their full potential,” says ALYA. “My goal is to continue to find ways to deliver these messages while at the same time seeking new opportunities to give back. The most rewarding aspect is that now when people ask me what I’m doing, I can, after years of pursuing my dreams, genuinely say I am an artist and musician. Bill Schnee recently told me that a lady who works for him who is a Russian immigrant started crying when she heard one of my new songs — as if it spoke directly to her experience. That’s the kind of impact I am so grateful for and hope I can always have.”

Rising Music Star Alya On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry

Written by Bhoomppa