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Photo Credit: Aliyah Otchere

Tora is the 20-year old Londoner who has caught everyone’s attention during UK lockdown. First and foremost she is an artist, with a calming yet direct approach to her work and authentic style of storytelling. Her voice really speaks to you and the vocal range within her verses are as graceful as an eagle soaring in the sky. “Singing was the only thing that made me feel clear headed and truly in the moment,” Tora told i-D Magazine. 

January 2020 saw ‘Pisonia Prologue’ released solely as a music video on IGTV, which was said to be the first instance of a music video only available on IGTV and optimised for that platform. It received over 4,000 views and a week later it became record of the week on BBC 1Xtra. Enter early March and cue Tora’s next release ‘Vein’ – a powerful poetic song that covers all bases to reveal Tora’s creativity as she incorporates those heavily syncopated percussive loops of a jungle beat into her own mid-tempo manner. The release came with another captivating video – this time available on YouTube and all streaming services – exploring the narrative of feeling trapped within yourself and it choreographs this through the beauty and dexterity of Black hair as Tora sits in an enormous web of her own braids.

Following this, UK lockdown was announced at the end of March and after three months of being cooped up indoors Tora took to Instagram captioning a photo of herself with: “the world is ending so I’m dropping my EP, June 26th Cavalier will be all yours”. To describe ‘Cavalier’ in one word I would choose lulling. Tora’s choice of collaborators to elevate her visions are very appealing – she has so far collaborated with Silence, Aliyah Otchere and Motherlan. All in all producing four clean cut music videos out in just four months amidst UK lockdown. Impressive, to say the least.

Look out for more to come from the young artist through her Instagram page – @toradifrance – and watch all four music videos on Tora’s YouTube channel.

FOR FANS OF:

Joy Crookes, Jorja Smith, Arlo Parks

KEY TRACK:

‘Pisonia Prologue’

The moody melodic song delivered with sure footed swagger that broke Tora onto the scene.