In early 2020, political science senior Zyair Ayanna went to California for the first time to help her cousin move into an apartment at UCLA. That same trip, she went to a studio where her cousin was modeling and was approached by a producer and engineer duo that was scouting out talent.
They asked her if she “did” anything — meaning, was she a singer, model, actress? Ayanna responded that she did not "do anything," but still swapped social media and contact information with the duo anyways.
That week, Zyair posted a cover of “Stay” by Rihanna on her Instagram, the first time she had posted herself singing. A week later, the duo called her up. The conversation went like this:
“You said you didn’t do anything,” the duo said.
“I don’t,” Ayanna said.
“You’re a singer,” the duo said.
“I’m not,” Ayanna said.
“Yes, you are. You have 14,000 followers,” the duo said.
Ayanna had logged off of social media shortly after posting her video. She had no idea it was viewed over 100,000 times.
Ayanna said the duo offered to fly her out to LA to start working on music, but she turned them down. But his wasn't for a lack of love for music. While her video was the first time she had posted her talent publicly, telling the duo she didn’t “do” anything wasn’t the whole truth.
Ayanna said she has been singing since she could speak.
“I would always just do little covers and stuff, I feel like every kid did, but I just never outgrew it,” Ayanna said.
As a kid, Ayanna had very artistic dreams — she used to want to be an author or a fashion designer. She started playing instruments when she was four years old and while these were good hobbies, she always knew she had to find a “practical” career.
“My grandparents raised me no tattoos, no piercings … 'You can sing, but don't be a singer,'” Ayanna said. “No one in my family knew I sang until a year ago or two ago besides my mom. But that's simply because I didn't know if they would support it fully, especially because my grandparents, they grew up in the Whitney Houston era, so they feel like if you do not sing like Whitney Houston, you are not a singer. That's some pretty high expectations.”
Ayanna said this was why she turned down the offer to be flown out to LA and why she turned them down another five times after that. She was also afraid people would judge her. For this reason, putting herself in the public eye has been scary.
However, Ayanna gained more confidence when she started to see that people were connecting with her voice.
“I realized that people were relating to the things that I was saying, and sometimes it wouldn't even be just what I was saying but just like, 'Oh, your voice, it really did something to me and moved me and made me feel something,'” Ayanna said. “Singing is so much deeper than just the lyrics, it's how your voice makes other people feel.”
Roughly one year after her initial trip to California, Ayanna started going back and forth between East Lansing and LA, spending two weeks in each place at a time. However, this was a huge adjustment to Ayanna.
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“My first six months out there were really terrible, I'm not going to lie, it's such a culture shock,” Ayanna said. “The people are very different ... Eventually I found my circle and I do have friends out there now and they're great.”
Ayanna has been able to go to networking events and make connections with other producers and engineers such as OVO sound, a label started by Drake. She now has over 113,000 followers on Instagram, has released music on Spotify and Apple Music and is moving to LA after she graduates in May.
“I have been offered (record) deals that I have not taken just because record deals are very hard to figure out,” Ayanna said. “As future plans, I want to focus more on marketing and putting myself out there ... I want to start doing videos and start making more music more consistently and if I pop off, I pop off. If I don't that's okay, I enjoyed doing it.”
Ayanna said another reason why she hasn't signed any record deals is because of the way Black women are treated in the music industry. She said that she has already faced struggles that she doesn’t think would have happened if she wasn’t a Black woman.
“Because we are oversexualized, I feel like people don't really notice the message behind a lot of the things that we say, but the messages behind a lot of songs that Black women have put out are insane and it's also changed history,” Ayanna said. “I just think it's so underappreciated, because if you recognize how much that we've done, then you would see we really are the music industry.”
Ayanna said that while she has goals for her music, she doesn’t make it for anyone in particular but herself. She doesn’t write songs with the mindset that she is trying to write a “hit,” she writes them because it makes her feel what she wants to feel at the time.
Though she's performed at venues in locations such as Miami and Hawaii, she still enjoys being part of events around campus — like the Black Students' Alliance events and Spartan Remix.
“It just it makes me feel good because there's no pressure,” Ayanna said. “You're not doing it because somebody's going to give you money afterwards, you're not doing it because management is expecting you to or anything like that … it just feels very supportive and encouraging … I felt really in tune with my community.”
