Back home (read: here), Yuna Zarai, better known as Yuna, is already one of Malaysia’s sweetest, most successful independent singer-songwriters of our generation. With influences from Feist, The Cardigans, Coldplay, Sia and Bob Dylan, she did covers, wrote her own songs, sang her own songs, performed live, and recorded.
She instantly became a massive hit in Malaysia.
After numerous acoustic shows and events, and garnering a huge following on her MySpace, Indie-Pop record label and management company personally flew out to Malaysia to convince her to sign with them and then later on scored her a deal with New York-based FADER label.
In March 2011, her debut US EP, “Decorate” was released:
Fast foward one year later, in January 2012, Yuna released a new single on iTunes. The track, called, “Live Your Life” was produced by none other than Pharrell Williams of N.E.R.D.
Seriously, Pharrell Williams!
This is to build up to the release of her self-titled full-length album which will hit the stores on the 24th of April 2012. You would think that’s enough to justify her breaking into the international market, but no.
The Malaysian Twittersphere was set a buzz the whole of yesterday when she announced that she was going to be on Conan O’Brien’s show in California, United States.
And right before the show, Yuna tweeted the following “teaser” pictures that made some of us extremely jealous albeit proud:
Oh, perhaps we forgot to include the fact that she also had the change to meet the legen..wait for it..dary Neil Patrick Harris backstage. Gosh!
Now, without further ado, watch the video of Yuna’s international debut and live performance of “Live Your Life” on Conan:
What a milestone for our homegrown darling, and Malaysia too! We’re so, so immensely proud of you. You go, Yuna!
For more information, visit her official website and YouTube channel. For more timely updates from Yuna herself, follow her Twitter account!
