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Nov 09, 2018 By Christopher Roberts Nilüfer Yanya

Nilüfer Yanya is a promising new 23-year-old London-based singer/songwriter/guitarist. Now she has shared a new single, “Heavyweight Champion of the Year,” via a video for the track. The single is out now via ATO and a press release promises her debut album will be out in early 2019 via the label. Watch the video below, followed by her upcoming tour dates, including dates opening for Interpol and Sharon Van Etten.

Yanya co-produced the song with live band members saxophonist Jazzi Bobbi and bassist Luke Bower. It follows up the Do You Like Pain? EP, released earlier this year. The creative team ENERGYFORCE directed the video.

Yanya had this to say about the song in a press release: “‘Heavyweight Champion…’ for me is about reaching my own metaphorical bar, reaching my own limits within myself, and kind of forbidding myself to take it further. It feels like quite a physical song, quite physically tired - and mentally, but knowing the desire is still there to continue. I imagine it sometimes in my head as drawing a line around me and the outside world - a form of self protection and preservation.”

Yanya had this to say about the video: “The video is about the concept of performance and the relation to the individual. We are never really sure who is the real me. This is because we are all in a state of constant performance, whether that be in everyday life or being in front of a camera. Even when we are not performing, how do we know we are not performing? Which is the genuine and which is the fake? Only in retrospect we can look back and realize ‘I wasn’t being myself’ or ‘I was completely myself’.”

Nilüfer Yanya Tour Dates:

November 14 - Royal Albert Hall, London*
November 15 - Royal Albert Hall, London*
November 16 - O2 Apollo, Manchester*
November 18 - Olympia Theatre, Dublin*
November 19 - Olympia Theatre, Dublin*
November 23 - Mehr! Theater, Hamburg*
November 24 - TAP1, Copenhagen*
November 25 - Tempodrom, Berlin*
November 27 - Tivoli Vredenburg , Utrecht*
November 28 - Forest National, Brussels*
November 29 - La Salle Pleyel, Paris*
February 6 - 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.^
February 7 - Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA^
February 8 - Royale, Boston, MA^
February 9 - Beacon Theatre, New York City, NY^
February 11 - Danforth Music Hall, Toronto, CAN^
February 13 - Majestic Theatre, Detroit, MI^
February 14 - Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL^
February 16 - First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN^
February 18 - Gothic Theatre, Englewood, CO^
February 19 - Metro Music Hall, Salt Lake City, UT^
February 22 - The Imperial, Vancouver, CAN^
February 23 - Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA^
February 26 - The Filmore, San Francisco, CA^
February 28 - The Observatory North Park, San Diego, CA^
March 1 - The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles, CA^
April 29 - Les Nuits Botanique Festival, Brussels, Belgium

*with Interpol
^with Sharon Van Etten

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