FEATURE:
Spotlight
PHOTO CREDIT: Bella Howard
was a massive one for Natanya. She put out Feline’s Return and Feline’s Return Act II came out and were met with praise. This is an artist I only came across this year but wanted to spotlight here. The London artist is someone I am desperate to see play live, as I can imagine that she is a captivating and compelling stage presence. I am going to come to some features and interviews. Starting out with CLASH and their Next Wave salute from August, we get some important insight and background. An artist that I feel is really transforming and adding her stamp to Pop:
“Blessed with an acrobatic voice and an innate musicality, Natanya is well on her way to becoming a trailblazing force in pop. After first releasing ‘Sunset Melody’ on SoundCloud as a teenager, the London-based artist has honed her sound with a coming-of-age EP ‘Sorrow at Sunrise’, and her latest offering, ‘Feline’s Return’, speaks to an emboldened artist able to temper the melodrama with sensitive, soul-searching lyricism.
Natanya spent her formative years learning classical piano which was hindered by a “musical dyslexia”. She found a way to turn this creative dissonance into a positive. “I treasure that time so much. It taught me that even if you have these cards that you’re dealt, you’ve got to figure out how you can shape it to work in your favour,” she tells CLASH.
Her classical training was enhanced by weekends at the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, as well as growing up around the sounds of Motown, Teddy Pendergrass, Janet and Michael Jackson. Aged 14, she came across Amy Winehouse’s ‘Frank’ and Tyler, The Creator’s ‘Cherry Bomb’ during a free trial on Deezer. “Amy had a jazz background and so did Tyler. It was just so eye-opening. I was like, ‘wow, music isn’t for old people. I could do this too”.
I am going to now move to this NYLON interview from earlier in the month. There is a lot more in store for Natanya. She has this incredible desire and passion for what she does. I can see her collaborating with some massive artists and being a major festival headliner in the future. Someone very much on a course to becoming one of this country’s biggest new Pop artists. One who very much has her own sound, yet she also has these influences that are weaved into the music:
“The impression she’s made so far has already seen her monthly listeners on Spotify more than double. Her lilting, buttery voice recalls Aaliyah, Janet Jackson, Amy Winehouse (a formative artist in her childhood), and Destiny’s Child all at once, and the beats she produces range from bedroom pop to full R&B homages (Janet and Aaliyah come to mind again) and indie-rock smooth jams. Growing up in London with a dad in a church band and a Trinidadian-Indian mom who played calypso music in the house, she touched almost all forms of music available to her. She studied classical piano from the age of 4, watched wrestling and became obsessed with the bombastic entrance songs, and of course, is a child of the Internet, soaking up music on YouTube and Roblox. Her references speak to the post-globalized digital world, specifically the melting pot of East-meets-West that is London, and her ability to tap into so many disparate energies at once yet create a novel sound is what sets her apart.
Her first few songs and introductory EP, Sorrow At Sunrise, sound like exactly what they are: a girl making beats with a laptop and the hope of etching out her own corner in the music universe. But with the two-part EP that is now her first full-length project, Feline’s Return, she has what many emerging artists only dream of: a body of work that not only arrives as something new, but has a league of fans rabid for more. Her fan base already has a name, The Felines, which she tells NYLON comes from her love of a cat-eye. Her upward-tilting eyes have a coquettish, feline, and ineffably unique look to them, and her pin-up, cutesy vibe does not betray the intelligence and camp in her delivery: Everything comes with a knowing wink, not unlike a black cat that tips over a glass of milk only to relish in the act.
Before she goes on what she calls a “mini-break” to dial in for the rest of 2026, Natanya is releasing a video for “Ur Fool,” the cool, guitar-led duet with her peer, Unflirt, that encapsulates her direct, piercing lyrics, which she says are almost often “the first words that usually come out of my mouth… they punch a lot”: “I’ll be your fool / even though it’s not easy / you know that you need me.” NYLON got a first look at the behind-the-scenes pictures from the shoot, which she called a “cute hang,” and dialed in with the artist to talk about her formative years in jazz school, what SZA song makes her cry, and her determination to make everyone sit up straight and know her name in 2026.
When was the first moment when you switched from studying music and seeing it to wanting to make your own?
I never had a switch flick in my brain. I was always unconsciously making things. Even when I got Fisher Price toys, I would always make loops and learn the “instrument.” When I was a teenager, I transitioned to jazz because one of the girls at the top of my school was incredible at piano — she ended up going to Berklee — and she told me about this academy that was happening on Saturdays, so I followed her, did my audition on the spot, and studied that for a while. I always had these melodic ideas in my mind and I would go on the computers after school, hang back in the music suite, and try to make these loops because I wanted to get the ideas out.
We were always surrounded by the ability to create at jazz school. We would do a cappella groups and split the whole class up into these mini stems. When I did one, my teacher told me after the warmup finished, “Natanya, you have such a penchant for arrangement. It's one of your strong suits and you should never forget it.” The moment when I really woke up and my frontal lobe started to develop was at the end of university, which wasn't that long ago. I started to process, like, “OK, if I want to do this, I have to give it my best shot.” 2025 was the real moment of saying “there's no time like the present.” A lot of people come in with a laser-sharp focus saying, “I know I'm going to get this,” and even though I do speak positively about myself and I manifest a lot, I never started to create music with this idea of garnering fame or accolades. I’ve just had so much fun doing it for so long.
I'm so happy people are starting to wake up to the music you're putting out, because not only is the production amazing, but I love your lyrics and your directness. Specifically, this morning I was listening to “Jezebel.” I love that it's a letter to yourself. Tell me about making that song and what you wanted to say to yourself.
The first half of the song was made in 2023. I was going through a lot of difficulty because I come from an academic background, and it's discouraged for people to go off and do something like this. I also remember being the only person that looked like myself in the places I grew up, so there was always tension. When I first started with Sorrow At Sunrise, I felt like I couldn't do anything right. It hurt me, because at the time I couldn't see the potential my friends were seeing. I thought of it as, “I'm hanging out with my friends, doing my thing, and this is the other hobby I have behind the scenes,” but they were like, “Natanya, you don't realize your power.”
I was really dejected one day after an argument, and when I got to the piano, [Jezebel] was the first word that came out of my mouth. I grew up in church; I always heard about Jezebels in English Lit when I did my degree, and that was a word that was thrown around to talk about women that were being villainized. And I felt villainized. The second half, I wrote in the shower in 2025. Funnily enough, I was taking a shower in the water of my dreams. I wanted to talk about how sometimes your destiny is tangible. It's there and it's in front of you, you can see it, but because of what other people feel about you or what they lose from you going for it, you push it away and you don't let it wash all over you. “Take a shower in the water of your dreams” is almost like, “Accept it, let it overwhelm you and let whatever's going to happen, happen.” It's also this double entendre to refer to how once you do take a shower in the water of your dreams, life changes forever. You will never be the same person to the people that know you. It does wash you clean of your past, because what this job demands of you takes away some of your other identity. I've struggled with that too.
There's an intelligence behind the songs that allows you to be campy with the delivery. Why the name Felines for your fan base?
Oh my goodness, Kevin, thank you for that question. I get to explain it now. Ever since I was young, people told me I have a really catty eye, and I love eyeliner. It represents the way I like to see myself. You know when you make something cool and it makes you feel sexy and you sit there proud of yourself? Whenever I make a great demo, I dance around my room to it, and I'm always playing into this character of a seductress. I felt like that's the best name for my alter ego because I'm nerdy, introverted, and I overthink. When I'm not that, I’m Feline. I wanted to project that identity into the world. If Natanya doesn't yet feel like she's able to return, at least Feline can first, and then she can come out when it's safe. I’m happy my fans took over the Feline thing.
What do you want from 2026? This time next year, what do you want to have under your belt?
This year, I want to redirect the attitude about me even more. I want people to understand me on a deeper level, not just on a superficial, “Oh my God, she's so cute” level. I want them to say, “OK, maybe Natanya could do something cool with music. Maybe she does have something going on in her head that we need to stop and drop our bags and listen to. Maybe I do need to find out a little bit more about her. Maybe I'm obsessed with her.” That's what I want to create.
By the end of 2026, my only dream is that that happens. Off the back of that, we do an incredible headline tour, but it's all down to the music and the music videos and me doing my job. I'm trying hard to focus. You're going to see a lot more of me as an executive producer than you did before. I'm learning production from every angle now, and putting my foot down and asserting myself to a level I haven't before. I'm excited to see how people react to me doing something they didn't expect me to do”.
I am going to end with a great NME interview from January. I am so excited by all the focus around Natanya. Shaping her sound and getting these huge numbers across streaming platforms and TikTok, she has captured this huge audience. This year is going to be exciting. After putting out new music last year, there will be demand for her to take to the stage. NME write how “the north London vocalist-producer has learned how to turn experience into pop music that moves, lingers and lasts”. This is an artist destined to be a legend. She has the talent and drive to take her all the way to the top – and into the history books:
“With ‘Feline’s Return’, she wanted to make her music “infectious”, using words “like paint” to insinuate things in a more subtle way. Its songs stretch across electronica, R&B, soul and pop, stitched together by worldly rhythms, chiming melodic accents and layered production that often feels larger than the room it was made in – adopting Natanya’s new “urgency and hustle”. She decided to stop “showing people exactly how chaotic [her] emotions are” and translate them into something more physical, so she could “make people dance as much as possible”.
By the time she began work on the EP, her approach to making music had changed. “The main difference was that I took control,” Natanya says. “When I was making ‘Sorrow At Sunrise’, I was heartbroken, and I let so much happen to me. Even in the studio, I wouldn’t take control.” This time, she arrived with “pre-made demos that sounded nearly identical to the finished masters, [knowing] exactly what every song was to be”.
That focus came amid the massive upheaval she experienced in 2024 – a period when she was touring Europe, opening for rising R&B juggernauts FLO and Destin Conrad, and finishing up her university work. But among the success and new opportunities, there was also pain and strife. Two days before she joined Conrad on tour, her grandma died. Then, while on the road, the team she’d built around her “broke apart”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Radota
Natanya was physically and mentally spent and was faced with a choice between fight or flight. At one point, she nearly left Conrad’s tour early. “I called my dad, saying I wanted to go home,” she recalls. His response was firm: finish it. But there was still a nagging part of her that wondered whether she should “stay and be scared” of navigating the industry alone, or if this was “the sign” she needed to go in “the opposite direction and find [her]self”. In the end, she stuck with it – after all, she isn’t a quitter.
Now, Natanya is looking to the future and is currently working towards another collection of songs. The project is still taking shape, but she’s aiming to create something that’s both “like ‘Feline’s Return’, but also a complete deviation” from her frenetic-yet-soaring sound.
The paramount thing for the singer and producer is how she reacts to the music that comes out of her. “The human body knows what makes it feel good, whether you’re trained or not,” she philosophises. “If I listen to a song and I can’t feel it, I have to go back. I don’t want to release something that feels passive.” She’s keeping any further details on what she’s working on close to her chest – a precautionary move so as not to jinx building something with the scale and staying power of the records that raised her: “I really do believe that I’m protecting something that’s going to be legendary”.
I will finish here. Maybe she does not need my recommendation – as there are so many big sites and names backing her -, but I wanted to shine a light on a brilliant artist. It will not be long until other artists coming through cite Natanya as an influence. She is absolutely tremendous and is one of my favourite new artists now. One that I am committed to following…
FOR as long as possible.
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