SPOTIFY - 44k Monthly Listeners (features on NMF AU&NZ, Front Left, Alternative R&B and more)
APPLE MUSIC - 260k+ plays (features on NMD, Up Next, R&B Now, Future Hits and more)
YOUTUBE - 210k+ Views
INSTAGRAM - 10k+ Followers
TIK TOK - 10k+ Followers
“I’m excited to see what develops for KYE, she’s just got a great voice” - Richard Kingsmill, Triple J
“A wildly jagging yet effortlessly coherent introduction..” - NME
“One of the most exciting new pop names in Australia right now” - The Interns
“A special talent” - Pilerats
“Timeless” - Poccmag
Toured with… Sampa the Great, Genesis Owusu, Ruel and Meg Mac
To whomever has found themselves here, Hello! My name is Kylie Tadiwa Chirunga, but you can call me Kye. I’m a 24-year-old Zimbabwean born, UK-raised, Australian-assimilated woman. Like most people my age, I’m still on a journey to find myself. This is my story…
My journey starts in Avondale, an inner-city suburb of Harare, Zimbabwe. It is my birthplace and the start of a cross-cultural experience that has taken me from Zimbabwe, to the UK, to my current home, Australia.
My time in England is where my journey to find and embrace my identity, and this deep connection to music really started to flourish. I began singing and performing; I started a girl band with my friends, we would choreograph dances to our favourite songs and sing acapella. My evenings would be spent studying Whitney Houston’s vibrato with my ear pressed against my little pink and silver radio.
I was 11 when we moved and I was a confident young girl, heading into her teens. However, all of a sudden in Australia, I was considered too loud, too confident. “That’s not how we do things here” I was told. I spent years minimising my dreams, minimising myself. I curated a comfort zone that became a crutch. It was near impossible to leave.
You’re meeting me at a point where I’m finally finding peace and joy in knowing the woman I am, and the artist who I am growing into with my music.
My music crosses genres and reflects my own personal mantra of embracing openness and finding joy in it. The sounds I play with are in the R&B and soul world, but they’re also proudly pop too. To look at artists like Chloe x Halle, Ella Mai, and H.E.R, I find a sense of connection and inspiration. They’ve struck that balance between the youthful spirit and the darker tones that come with maturity and growing up.
I have been blessed to have worked with and toured with some extremely talented artists already including Sampa The Great, Ruel, Meg Mac and Billy Davis. With my solo project, I know that the experiences and lessons I’ve learned over the last few years have left an impact on the way I have formed as an artist in my own right. And still, I learn, I grow, and I adapt.
I am sweet, but I am strong. I am modest, and I am sexy.
I am forgiving and kind, and I am tenacious and I am relentless.
The resilience I was brought up with, the humility I learned, the strength I embrace and the joy that threads all these experiences together comes from within and shines without.
I am myself and for the first time in my life, I’m 100% confident. I am KYE.
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