Keyana — The Gen Z Model, Dancer, And R&B Musician Is NYLON’s May 2021 Cover Girl

The phrase “Gen Z” often triggers a bunch of strong emotions, from an unyielding defence of a stereotype thrusted upon an entire generation, or, especially if you’re a millennial, and let’s be honest here, a more-affected-than-you-let-on eye roll. As far as the war between millennials and Gen Z goes though, it’s mostly reduced to petty squabbles on skinny jeans and emojis, but pure, true talent transcends all these — it certainly does with our cover girl, Keyana, a Gen Z model, dancer, and singer-songwriter I’d happily stand down and concede the throne to. This queen’s just that deserving.

Keyana — real name Melanie Sum Kasise — had her big break as a fashion model when she was crowned second runner-up in the The New Paper‘s New Face model search, which soon led to edgy editorial spreads across high-end magazines. The avid hip-hop dancer does have something to confess to us though: music has always been her biggest passion. “My dream was always to be a performer at the end of the day, and music has always been what I wanted to do. I just never knew how and when to do it,” she says. “A year and a half ago, it felt right, so I was like — I’m just gonna try it. If it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t, but I’m just gonna try it first!”

Well, surprise — this model has a voice like honey. She croons, in the effortless way people who know they can sing do, but without any airs or pretence. After all, she’s baring her soul here. With two self-penned singles currently in her repertoire, “Save It”, her first foray, is an intriguing track on messy confessions and young, lost love, while “Scorpio” deals with a dark moment in her life when she felt trapped in a toxic relationship. “I’m emotional. That’s how I’d describe my music. And what I really want to push forward is truth and honesty,” she shares with us. Of the two, the latter is the more polished track that shows off the soothing tones of her lower-register vocal range. The lo-fi beats and echoey vocals make for a sophisticated R&B track suited for night-time listening, one that’s perhaps best expressed with the new-generation hashtag, #mood.

Above, outfit (CHANEL):
tank in black, neon pink and white, $2,320
shorts in black, $3,310
metal Earrings with imitation pearls and diamanté, $1,190
metal Cuff with attached bag, $3,850
Coco crush ring, large version in 18k yellow gold, $5,200
makeup (CHANEL):
les beiges healthy glow foundation in B60 & B70, $90
les 4 ombres in 362 candeur et provocation, $98
joues contraste powder blush in 250 crescendo, $75
le blanc rosy light drops, $85
rouge coco bloom in 138 vitalitÉ, $54

 

Of course, to sum up Keyana as a “rising Gen Z star”, though accurate, seems to belittle the tenacity and maturity this 18-year-old possesses; she shines, most visibly through her talent across the fields of dance, modelling, and music, but also because of her naturally confident poise. I had met her at a press event about two years ago, before she was the bona fide cool-girl she is now, and even back then, was pleasantly surprised at how she was chatting so casually among peers much older than she was. During our interview, she strikes me as a person with a fascinating duality; on one hand, a bright-eyed optimism that can only come from youth, and the other, a person moulded by resilience against the hardships and lessons of her past.

And then, there’s the thing that’s almost unavoidable when it comes to discussing anything about her person — her mixed-race ancestry. Of Chinese and Ghanian descent, Keyana is blessed with striking features of dark skin and luscious curls that make her stand out from her contemporaries. Her recent performance at this year’s Chingay Parade saw her take on the Mandarin-language classic “Moonlight in the City”, which would have been surprising to most given her Afro-Asian looks. “A lot of people were very surprised that there was an African girl in Singapore who was so in touch with her Chinese roots. I’m Chinese too, so the fact that I can represent my culture on stage while looking so different, brings something interesting to it.”

She’s different alright, but is different all that good? She’s certainly not immune to the racial discrimination she felt while growing up, and candidly opens up on her journey of struggle and eventual self-acceptance. This idea of embracing oneself also applies to her music career. With no big label or professional team behind her, striking out on her own has been tough, though she remains gracious about what’s behind her, and positive about her journey ahead: “What I’ve realised is that I need to accept growth and process and progress, to not push, and just do.” With a wise-beyond-her-years head on her shoulders, and that elusive charming yet always effortlessly cool demeanour she carries with her, Keyana’s certainly making an impact in spite of her young age, probably more so because of it — and we’ll be sticking around to chart her rise.

PHOTOGRAPHed BY ADELE CHAN USING THE LEICA M10-R + SUMMILUX-M 35MM F/1.4 ASPH LENS.
MAKEUP BY PETER KHOR USING CHANEL MAKEUP.
HAIR BY JUSTIN JAVIER FROM SHUNJI MATSUO.
STYLed BY RANDOLPH TAN.
SHOT ON LOCATION AT K.STAR plaza singapura.

 

HER START IN MODELLING

“It was when I joined the ‘The New Paper New Face’ modelling competition, back in 2017. My mom kinda forced me to do the modelling competition, and I was like, why not right? So, I did it, unexpectedly placed, didn’t know how to dress, never really liked fashion before that, and was super new to the industry. Then, Mannequin [the modelling agency]  approached me and I signed with them. I was 14 when I took part in the competition.”

AND MOVING ON TO MUSIC

“For me, I always had this creative urge, and am always looking for something to satisfy it. First, it was dance since I was in Secondary School. I did ballet, hip-hop, then later on, modelled. And I was like, okay, my dream was always to be a performer at the end of the day, and music has always been what I wanted to do. I just never knew how and when to do it. A year and a half ago, it felt right, so I was like — I’m just gonna try it. If it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t, but I’m just gonna try it first!”

ON WHETHER THAT FELT RIGHT

“A lot of musicians say this all the time: the easiest part is making music. That’s maybe 20% of it though, the other 80% is the industry — people, shows, network, all that. What didn’t really sit right with me at first was that. It was hard to be like, now I gotta build my own brand, think business, figure out all that, go for events. It was added pressure. But making music, recording it, felt right — that satisfaction and happiness you get from it really pushes you to do the rest of the stuff.”

Above, outfit (CHANEL):
Embroidered printed silk bLouse in black and multicolour, $9,790
Metal earrings in gold, $790
gold and black Cuff in metal and lambskin, $2,200
Coco crush ring, large version in yellow gold, $5,200
Coco crush ring, mini version in white gold with diamonds, $5,300
Coco crush Ring, mini version in beige gold, $2,100
Makeup (CHANEL):
rouge coco bloom in 130 blossom, $54

 

HOW SHE’D DESCRIBE HER MUSIC

“I’m an emotional person, and I think you can tell from my music, everything about me. From my visuals, to everything that accompanies it, and how I present myself — I’m emotional. That’s how I’d describe my music. And what I really want to push forward is truth and honesty.”

HER SONGWRITING PROCESS

“It depends. There are some songs where it’s me listening to an instrumental and then I get inspiration from how I feel about it, and go like, okay, is there something in my life that makes me feel the way I feel then, and just connect that. Or, I just feel super inspired from a specific situation in my life and am like, okay I gotta write the lyrics down first, and then translate that vibe. Sometimes it’s just freestyle! And this happens a lot more often that people say it does, but you listen back to lyrics that you might have unintentionally wrote, and kinda find meaning in it, and from there, figure out how you feel about it.”

ON HER FIRST SINGLE, ‘SAVE IT’

“That was a very young me writing the song, maybe when I was 15. I didn’t really know what to write. I remember not knowing anything, but just taking a little inspiration here and there from my daily life and then putting it into a song.

I don’t think any explanation on my end can justify its meaning, people just need to listen and gain meaning from it themselves. But, for me, my literal inspiration behind the song was, I had a good guy friend and I could kinda tell he had started to develop feelings for me, and I just didn’t want him to tell me. Save it, don’t say it. That was literally it, I didn’t want my friendship to be affected.

Every artist has a first song they may not be fully proud of, but I’m fully proud of the fact this is my first song.  I was young, the songwriting isn’t the best, but I acknowledge how beautiful it turned out with all that youth — it captured that moment in my life that I can never replicate now. As much as I’ve gotten better, I’m not complaining.”

Above, outfit (CHANEL):
Metal earrings in gold, $790
Embroidered printed silk bLouse in black and multicolour, $9,790
Necklace in metal and diamantés ruthenium, $2,280 (worn as belt)
gold and black Cuff in metal and lambskin, $2,200
Coco crush ring, large version in 18k yellow gold, $5,200
Denim sling-back in neon pink, $1,320

 

ON PERFORMING LIVE

“I’ve never performed on stage many times before making music. My first show — ever — was December last year! ‘Back To Live’ at Marina Bay Sands (MBS). I’m very honoured for my first show to be at MBS and to perform on such a big stage, but it was very nerve-wrecking. Many of the performances now though are in small groups, if you were to even perform. I try my best to make my sets intimate, like you can really feel and hear every word I say, and it’s not just lights and fireworks and dances. I do enjoy sets like those though, but that emotional side of me comes out better in intimate sets.”

PERFORMING A MANDARIN SONG DURING THIS YEAR’S CHINGAY PARADE

“It was nice actually! Since day one of my life, Mandarin has been a very big part of me. My mom did not care about any of my other subjects in school, it was like, “You just do well, get an A in Chinese for me and I’ll be happy. You can fail any other subject and you’ll be fine!” So Chinese was really my best subject for the longest time, from Primary School all the way to Secondary School. I stressed about it the most! I’m glad I did perform at Chingay though, because it’s like, okay I perform Chinese song for you already, you happy? [laughs]

A lot of people were very surprised that there was an African girl in Singapore who was so in touch with her Chinese roots. I’m Chinese too, so the fact that I can represent my culture on stage while looking so different, brings something interesting to it. And the song is such a classic. The original producer of that song produced the one that was performed too, and it’s a very nice arrangement, they wanted to give more soul to it, and I was glad to be the one chosen for it.”

AND STARTING HER LIVE PERFORMANCES DURING THE PANDEMIC

“To be honest, it did suck. It wasn’t a nice feeling. I made music for a while, maybe a year, before I released my first song. Performing was one of the things I really looked forward to. But it was a blessing in disguise. The fact that we don’t have a lot of performances, it forces people to make more music, and for me to expand my discography to perform a full 30 – 45 minute set without doing covers. Hopefully when I perform again, I can perform a whole set of my originals.”

Above, outfit (CHANEL):
embroidered cotton drill Jacket in ecru and black, $27,130
metal Earrings with imitation pearls and diamanté, $1,190
Long necklace in metal, lambskin and glass pearls, $3,580
shorts in black, $3,310
Mini Flap bag with top handle in metallic grained calfskin, $6,380

 

ON THE DARKER THEMES IN HER SECOND SINGLE, ‘SCORPIO’

“It was a personal experience. I was angry, and I wanted to express that. That was a very dark moment in my life. I was so angry yet weirdly at peace with myself, and it was like, ugh, I have to say it. I wanted people to listen, and to remember this point in my life, fully in my own words. It was very nerve-wrecking but it made me feel good, It was like, yes, I’m glad I said that. Everything about the song depicted what I felt internally. The song as a whole really justified how I felt at the time, it felt right.

At that point in my life, there was one man who really messed me up for a very long time. And the thing was, I wasn’t aware of what the person was doing to me. I was in a very toxic — such a cliché word — but really, toxic, helpless environment. The worst thing was I needed someone special to come into my life to tell me that, hey, that’s not right, whatever’s happening to you is not right. That’s when I started to realise what’s been happening to me for months, and it justified how upset I was, because I was upset for so long. I was so angry yet happy I was out of it. So there’s that vulnerability, but also I was confrontational in the song. I wanted him to hear it. It gave me strength, for sure.”

SPEAKING UP ABOUT HER SEXUAL GROOMING EXPERIENCE ON SOCIAL MEDIA

“I think, in the Singapore media industry, young girls are made to feel so clueless. Even as a model, I was so young, I didn’t know what was happening. Everyone seems so successful. I just felt like I needed to catch up, even though I was so young. The fact that there was somebody who was there for me to promise me that when I was so naive, it trapped me. I didn’t know how to get out of it — I didn’t want my career to go down. But after I realised how much it affected me, and how it could affect people, and that he’s still in the industry, still close to young women, still working with brands, I didn’t want to ruin him, I just want people to know, young women to know.

At first, I didn’t even want to name him. But people came to me and said, hey, you want to let people know that grooming exists in Singapore, and yet you don’t want to say the name of the person, how are we supposed to know who he is? People might not know this, but I went through so many conversations, both with myself and other people, to come to the decision of whether I was going to name him — but at the end of the day, I felt it was necessary. Holding him accountable is a good thing, but at the same time, and I’m playing the devil’s advocate here, maybe I didn’t need for it to go public, you know? But I still stand by my decision.

Before speaking out, I had already been at peace with it, I did my own healing first — speaking up was never in my plans! There was a lot of hate that come from it, people said mean things. After the entire situation, it’s the people who genuinely shared with me how they felt, who sent me love, that made it very worth it. And now, hearing people say “I’m going to look out for this in the future”, that’s all I really wanted.”

Above, outfit (CHANEL):
embroidered cotton drill Jacket in ecru and black, $27,130
metal Earrings with imitation pearls and diamanté, $1,190
Long necklace in metal, lambskin and glass pearls, $3,580
makeup (chanel):
rouge coco bloom in 138 vitalitÉ, $54

 

GROWING UP AS A CHINESE-GHANAIAN GIRL IN SINGAPORE

“My dad wasn’t present in my life so I didn’t have the African culture set in me since I was young. As a literal Chinese girl on the inside, though looking not at all Chinese, it was difficult. There was a lot of bullying and ignorance, but I think it all paid off in the end. I got curious about my African heritage, like hey, I’m Chinese, my family here is too, so why do I look like the artists that I look up to? I love Beyoncé, Rihanna, and that made me dig deeper into the culture — and I discovered, oh I actually really like dance, I love reggae, and I fell in love with hip-hop at a young age. I started to understand and relate to the same struggles, and that culture was slowly imparted to me. R&B became the way I spoke, and that felt really natural to me.”

ON HAVING TO DEAL WITH RACISM

“People see you differently, treat you differently — no matter positive or negative — and some people just don’t want to be treated differently. It can be positive, like omg you’re so beautiful, I love your skin colour. But you won’t say that about another Chinese woman. When I was very young, I was just very angry at the negative that came with it, that I didn’t like the positive also. I just don’t want to be different! I think after I grew up, and started modelling, I started seeing the beauty in myself, with my skin colour, my hair, my height, everything. That was when I started to accept things that came my way, to not get so angry and appreciate the positive comments more.”

Above, outfit (CHANEL):
Necklace in metal and diamantés ruthenium, $2,280
Metal earrings in gold, $790 (worn on one side)
Crepe de chine top, $3,950
flap coin purse with chain, $2,020
Denim sling-back in blue, $1,320
makeup (CHANEL):
rouge coco bloom in 112 opportunity, $54

 

HOW THIS 18-YEAR-OLD IS GETTING HER CAREER ON TRACK

“It’s scary, and I had to learn every step of the way — graduating, moving from dance to modelling, now handling it all myself, music, and especially since I don’t have a manager anymore. What I’ve realised is that I need to accept growth and process and progress, to not push, and just do.

Previously, I would never not wear makeup, I would dress a certain way, make sure I post every day, it was all unnecessary stress. But now that I’m older, I’m like, I’m just going to do it — if you guys like it, great, don’t like it, then don’t. At the same time, I do hold myself accountable and push myself harder every single time; each song I make has to be better, and I need to step outside of my comfort zone. With enough hard work, you get somewhere.

I just kinda calmed down, really. I do mess up on my stage, but I’m like, I haven’t performed as much as my favourite artists have performed, so I’m just gonna accept myself and accept that I’m growing. Relax a bit la, don’t need to get so stressed.”

Above, outfit (CHANEL):
Tweed vest in pink and green, $6,540
Tweed jacket in pink and green, $11,740
Necklace in metal, glass pearls, glass and strass ruthenium, $6,030
makeup (CHANEL):
ombre premiÈre longwear cream eyeshadow in 840 patine bronze, $53
rouge coco bloom in 122 zenith, $54

 

HER UPCOMING EP

“I don’t know what exactly I can say about it because I’m still in the process of it, picking and choosing what songs I want to put in and all, but I can say that it’s a sentimental project. You’ll need an acquired taste to enjoy it because it’s R&B, very soulful, but not pop — it’s raw and genuine. It also talks about my family, how I didn’t have a father, and how that felt growing up.

The entire EP, I made sure that every single person working on it was somebody special to me. I didn’t want to work with somebody because of who they were. And I’m working with amazing people! From production, to songwriting, to the visuals, to cover art, it’s a project of love. I’m just gonna put it out there — it’s for me to listen to my own music in the most convenient way. Y’all can listen to it too, but this one’s for me! [laughs] That’s my mentality, I don’t want to stress myself out and think of numbers and all, which are important for sure, but all in all, it’s for me and the people that worked with me to think, hey, we did that together and it’s great.

I’ll release a single before that, which will be out in mid June, and that will be a sneak peek before the EP drops. I just hope that everyone listening, who will listen to it, genuinely sees it in all the beauty it has, from every single person putting in their all. It was a lot of pain, but I think I’ll be very proud of it.”

LISTEN TO keyana, HERE. and HERE. AND FOLLOW HER ON INSTAGRAM HERE.