Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
I don’t usually feature artists whose success is as uncertain as this, but I think Donna Missal’s debut single Keep Lying has huge potential, and the response so far suggests that she, and the song, have a very bright future. After just a little support from Beats 1, and no label behind her (so it seems – and unusually, I don’t suspect otherwise), Keep Lying has reached the global top 10 and US top 5 of the Spotify viral charts. The song stands out amongst the current barrage of glitchy, timid electro-pop, and it’s really refreshing to hear a new artist bravely taking the opposite musical direction to most of her peers. Keep Lying is a passionate power ballad with raw, rock vocals, which take you by surprise as she launches full-force into the chorus. Apart from the tattoo sleeve, she doesn’t look like the typical rock chick, which may change when she (hopefully) goes into development with a major label, but I think this could be her strength. As Adele has shown, emotional music sells best when the artist seems very normal and relatable. Although Keep Lying is Donna’s first official single, a little research reveals she’s been quietly existing as a musician for a few years. She was in bands The Brixtons and Missal and the Mind Readers, featured on an unremarkable house-pop track and performed a Balcony TV session which shows off her musical abilities and sweet personality.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA39zmVw0v0]