Features : With fun, saucy “Tangy,” Kurdish star BANA shows she’s ready to take on a wider pop world

For six years, since she was 16 and appeared on Kurdish Idol, BANA has been a pop star in Kurdistan. Now she is living and making music in London and moving into the English-speaking world.

BANA has been listening to music and dancing since she was a small child. Some of her English she learned from Taylor Swift and Katy Perry and, since age 16, she has been a pop star in Kurdistan.

She is 22 now, and the recently released single “Tangy” is her first song in English. It shows she has the voice, the control and the talent to become a star beyond the Middle East.

“Tangy” is a fast, fun, in-your-face breakup song. The fun, funny parts were deliberate.

“Why do heartbreak songs have to always be sad?” she asks. “So, it’s a feel-good song.”

They call it Tangy
You see that taste in your mouth?
You could have had me
…
And now you’re texting me drunk
Wishing you had me
It must be tangy

The song was written soon after she moved to London, the first time she had ever been out of Kurdistan. A recent breakup was part of the story, “and I was sick of listening to sad heartbreak songs.”

“The goal behind it was to feel good,” she said, “to be like, ‘I’m a savage, you missed out on me, and it’s your loss. Don’t be calling my phone at 3 a.m. when you’re drunk. I’m not gonna answer.’”

The song itself was based on experience. She was in the studio with a songwriter and her producer. She told them, “My ex just texted me. Let’s just write a song. I want to feel good.”

Her producer played a guitar loop while they were writing and, she said, “We listened to it for a couple of hours, and we wrote the song and recorded it, all in the same day. It was just a fun day, so fun, and I was like ‘I want to do this for the rest of my life.’”

Her career started on a whim, when she saw an advertisement seeking people to audition for Kurdish Idol. She didn’t win, but within a year she was pop gold in Kurdistan and has been ever since.

She has released a lot of music. Except for “Tangy,” it is all in Kurdish, but the voice and the talent shine through even if your only language is English. BANA has a wide vocal range, and she knows how to use it.

Taylor Swift and Katy Perry were not her only instructors in English. Or music.

“I grew up listening to Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Whitney Houston, Ariana Grande, Billy Eilish, Dupa Lipa, Harry Styles, One Direction, Little Mix albums, all these pop artists, even artists from different genres or different languages,” she said.

Her English, which she honed not only from pop but also from books, television, movies and instruction from her sisters, is excellent. She was a good student.

She was also an excellent student in her musical development. A command of pop is evident in her Kurdish music. Her talent transcends spoken language.

“I wrote the songs when I was 18-19, by myself. We don’t have any record labels back home, so I had to co-produce and write, and record in my closet.” Her body of work includes an 11-track album with a great variety in genre, tempo, mood and feeling.

Moving 3,200 miles from home to the western edge of a new continent, a vastly different culture, across almost a dozen countries, from a city of 800,000 to one of more than 8 million, was difficult. “Everything was different.”

“Every. Thing. Everything,” she said. “I swear to you, I didn’t know how to walk. I didn't know how to buy groceries. I didn’t know who I was.”

She wants to be on an international stage. A move was necessary, but she did not act on whim for this adventure.

“For this project — I’m not going to lie to you — I was not confident enough to just hop into the studio and be like, ‘Okay, let’s write English songs.’ I’m a perfectionist, and I like everything to be done perfectly. I spent a lot of time creating my craft and my songs, so I wanted to have a songwriter and a producer that already had experience in the music industry and knew what they were doing.”

Purpose and discipline guide her artistry.

“I’ve been doing this for six years now,” she said, “ever since I was 16, but in Kurdistan, I just didn’t find it fulfilling. I felt like a big fish in a small pond. So, I had to get out of there, and I came across people that are working in the music industry that believed in my vision and trusted me.”

“And,” she continued, “I don’t want to sound delusional, but I want to be international. I don’t want to just stick in one place. I want my music to reach whoever needs it.”

“Tangy” is the start, just “one of the 20 songs that we’ve written.” An album is in the works.

“They are written, recorded, produced. We’re waiting on the mix and masterings and to see when we should put them out, the right timing, but they are ready.”

She will be fun to watch. Stay connected to BANA on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

“Tangy” On Spotify
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Samuel Eni Show
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