Alina Baraz | |
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Born |
Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. |
September 24, 1993
Genres | |
Occupation(s) |
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Instruments | Vocals |
Years active | 2013–present |
Labels | |
Associated acts | Galimatias |
Website | alinabaraz |
Alina Baraz (born September 24, 1993) is an American singer and songwriter from Cleveland, Ohio. During 2015, Baraz and electronic producer Galimatias released a collaborative EP together titled Urban Flora through Ultra Music after discovering each other's work online. The EP was met with positive reception and streaming success. Since 2016 Baraz has been working to create her debut solo studio album and has released her first solo singles.
Alina Baraz was born on September 24, 1993 in Cleveland, Ohio to Russian parents, she was the first child in her family born in America. Growing up her parents raised her on classical music and on her own she became interested in 90s music and singers such as Adele, Amy Winehouse and Corinne Bailey Rae. She began singing at a young age in her gospel choir. At age 19 she decided to move to Los Angeles, California to pursue singing as a professional career, she also developed a passion for songwriting and wrote her first song titled "Roses Dipped in Gold".
After moving to Los Angeles Baraz discovered Danish electronic producer Galimatias' music online. She wrote lyrics for one of his instrumentals and released it on SoundCloud as a song titled "Drift" in 2013. Galimatias heard the track and decided to create more music with her. The two created an EP titled Urban Flora by sending each other music through Facebook and did not meet in person until February 2015 when the project was already finished. Alongside "Drift", the songs "Pretty Thoughts", "Make You Feel" and "Fantasy" were released individually preceding Urban Flora. The EP was originally released on SoundCloud but on May 19, 2015 it received a commercial digital release through Ultra Music. Upon release Urban Flora was met with positive critical reception and it peaked at number 111 on the US Billboard 200 and number 2 on the US Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums Chart. On September 9, 2015 a remix EP for Urban Flora was released, and later that month Baraz and Galimatias embarked on a brief co-headlining North American concert tour in support of the EP. In August 2016, Baraz signed a record deal with independent label Mom + Pop Music and released a vinyl edition of Urban Flora.