Hear “Heavyweight Champion Of The Year” HERE
 
“The 22-year-old London-based singer-songwriter has a knack for writing lyrics that seem to stare you straight in the eye” – The FADER

“For a young artist, Yanya already has an impressive range, and her ability to render the highs and lows of life in her songs is no small feat” – Pitchfork

 
Nilüfer Yanya, London’s 23 year-old “effortlessly smooth new soul star” (The FADER) today shared a stunning, expansive new single ‘Heavyweight Champion of the Year’, with an intimate, self-reflective accompanying visual. The track was co-produced by Nilüfer herself, and live band members saxophonist Jazzi Bobbi and bassist Luke Bower. It is out now on ATO Records and precedes Nilüfer’s run of UK and European shows supporting Interpol.
 
‘Heavyweight Champion of the Year’ comes from a place of introspection, with Nilüfer describing the track, “‘Heavyweight Champion…’ for me is about reaching my own metaphorical bar, reaching my own limits within myself, and kind of forbidding myself to take it further. It feels like quite a physical song, quite physically tired – and mentally, but knowing the desire is still there to continue. I imagine it sometimes in my head as drawing a line around me and the outside world – a form of self protection and preservation.”
 
The video for ‘HCOTY’ is directed again by ENERGYFORCE, the creative team behind all of Nilüfer’s stunning DIY visuals including those for earlier tracks ‘Thanks 4 Nothing’ and ‘Baby Luv’. Nilüfer explains, “The video is about the concept of performance and the relation to the individual. We are never really sure who is the real me.” She continues, “This is because we are all in a state of constant performance, whether that be in everyday life or being in front of a camera. Even when we are not performing, how do we know we are not performing? Which is the genuine and which is the fake? Only in retrospect we can look back and realise ‘I wasn’t being myself’ or ‘I was completely myself’.”
 
This November, as previously mentioned, Nilüfer will head out on the road with Interpol across the United Kingdom and Europe. She recently announced a run of North American tour dates with Sharon Van Etten throughout February 2019 (all tour dates below).
 
Nilüfer’s 2018 Do You Like Pain? EP featured the widely acclaimed tracks ‘Baby Luv’ and ‘Thanks 4 Nothing’, both of which were awarded “Best New Track” by Pitchfork, the esteemed music site’s highest honor. In addition, the tracks and EP received accolades from an enormous number of outlets including Billboard, BBC Radio 1, Stereogum, Noisey, The Guardian, DIY, NME, FACT and KEXP. A further slew of tips lists, including DIY’s ‘Class Of’ and The FADER’s ‘British Artists To Watch’, as well as The Sunday Times’, GQ’s and Dork’s, firmly established Nilüfer as one of the most promising British songwriters and guitarists of her generation; attention will soon turn to her hotly-anticipated debut record – due in early 2019 on ATO Records.
 
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TOUR DATES

November 14 – Royal Albert Hall, London*
November 15 – Royal Albert Hall, London*
November 16 – O2 Apollo, Manchester*
November 18 – Olympia Theatre, Dublin*
November 19 – Olympia Theatre, Dublin*
November 23 – Mehr! Theater, Hamburg*
November 24 – TAP1, Copenhagen*
November 25 – Tempodrom, Berlin*
November 27 – Tivoli Vredenburg , Utrecht*
November 28 – Forest National, Brussels*
November 29 – La Salle Pleyel, Paris*
February 6 – 9:30 Club, Washington, D.C.^
February 7 – Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA^
February 8 – Royale, Boston, MA^
February 9 – Beacon Theatre, New York City, NY^
February 11 – Danforth Music Hall, Toronto, CAN^
February 13 – Majestic Theatre, Detroit, MI^
February 14 – Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL^
February 16 – First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN^
February 18 – Gothic Theatre, Englewood, CO^
February 19 – Metro Music Hall, Salt Lake City, UT^
February 22 – The Imperial, Vancouver, CAN^
February 23 – Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA^
February 26 – The Filmore, San Francisco, CA^
February 28 – The Observatory North Park, San Diego, CA^
March 1 – The Theatre at Ace Hotel, Los Angeles, CA^
April 29 – Les Nuits Botanique Festival, Brussels, Belgium

*with Interpol
^with Sharon Van Etten