Liaah is a 20 year old model, singer, songwriter, creative, content creator, and self-taught nail artist. She loves experimenting with the content that she puts out into the world, from her outfits to her music, to the nail designs she makes on her re-opened business. But she feels people know her mostly from her editorial shoots, modeling, and of course, her iconic hair.
When you hear from Liaah, you understand that her individuality and originality are what make her stand out in a crowd. She isn’t scared of expressing herself! One way in which she expresses herself is her fashion and her hair – she loves streetwear and her orange hair. Clearly, Liaah isn’t scared of taking risks and putting herself out there, and that is exactly what she did when she launched her debut album.
Even though she recorded her album on a whim, she is exceptionally proud of what she has accomplished. She tells us that her album came just as a “thought” and therefore she decided to call it that, ‘Thoughts’. With the support and confidence of her brother in her music, she recorded five songs in one night, which in itself is super impressive! But not only did they record five songs in one night, they completed the whole album in 4 days. That is no small feat let us tell you that.
The inspiration for Liaah’s music is connected to her inner child. Liaah shares that “honestly this is all for her. I just think of how happy she probably is because she grew up to be the type of person she only dreamed of being”. Liaah continues that she feels that since she is a Gemini, her feelings are all over the place, we guess that is how she is able to create such beautiful music, since she can inject her passion into the songs. Liaah is not new to music, her parents have been very involved with the church choir and music, and in general they just loved to sing. In fact, it was her parents that encouraged her to follow her passion of singing by joining fundraising and charity concerts.
Other than her parents, Liaah explains that Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus have definitely made a big impact on her decision to make music. She grew up watching her every day on Disney Channel ever since she moved to Kuwait and she would even copy her outfits and her mannerisms on stage. Her style, then and now, has always been an inspiration for Liaah because of how much Miley continues to progress her voice, style and music. Other than Miley, Liaah was inspired by Jhene Aiko. With Jhene Aiko’s music, Liaah learnt to incorporate healing and relation with her music and credits her for “saving me during the toughest times”.
With Liaah as the lyric master and the vocal talent, her brother produces the music and they often call in the help of some of their friends with the instrumentals. She shares that “I direct my brother most of the time but all of it wouldn’t be possible without him. I write all the lyrics and melodies while he does all the complicated work, and I think that’s great for us, we have a great dynamic”.
Liaah tells us that “Thoughts is a complex album. It has happy, and at the same time pretty depressing, songs and lyrics. I feel like some people underestimated it when I announced the release. The reactions and feedback I got when it dropped were quite shocking; there were some backhanded compliments like ‘OMG I didn’t think it would be this good!,’ but I am really glad that we got to prove that I am not just another influencer experimenting with music as a hobby. I’m really happy too because everyone can relate to a song or two. I made sure that I released an album where it has genres mixed together and relatable life scenarios we all go through, so when people listen to it, it is inevitable that they would like at least one song.”
Liaah hopes that people feel less lonely and heartbroken when they listen to her music. She feels like the experiences she writes about aren’t talked about as much, and that in this generation we’re so heavily influenced by what the media portrays that we forget the reality and real-life experiences and the ups and downs we go through. It is impressive for a 20 year old to have such a deep insight into life.
Other than writing and producing music right now, Liaah models and is focusing on her press-on nail business. Her nail business started out of necessity when she wanted to save money instead of spending it on her nails, but now she can “make claws for the loveliest clients”. In the future, you can expect to see Liaah going international, she says she won’t stop until she gets to perform in the Madison Square Garden, and we believe she will get there!
We loved the album, it is something special and we suggest you go over and have a listen on any of the of the major streaming sites, the album is called Thoughts. You can follow Liaah on Instagram @aintiaah – this girl is going places and we are going along for the ride!
