Tash Sultana has been playing guitar since the age of 3…around the time we were learning how to speak in sentences, for reference. The Melbourne-based Aussie singer is only twenty-one years old, and yet has already launched a promising career in music by busking and what has become 21st-century busking: playing on YouTube. Her homemade videos have gone viral, with over 4.5 million cumulative views and counting.
Now, Tash is headlining sold out shows on a world tour. Her track “Jungle” off her EP Notion reached #3 on Australia’s public radio station Triple J Hottest 100 in 2016, earning her a J Award for Unearthed Artist of the Year. The video itself accumulated over a million views in just 5 days.
The talented musician is an expressive powerhouse on stage, and she has to be: Sultana is a one-woman band. She can sing, beatbox, play ten different instruments including bass, flute, drums, and the Arabic oud. In her performances, she creates sound loops that she layers to create the illusion of a full band (another “looper” who got their start on YouTube: “Shape Of You” singer Ed Sheeran).
Sultana’s style is a blend of indie, reggae-folk, and electronica with heavy vocal reverb and hypnotic synths. She has performed for a number of high profile festivals and was an opening act for Garbage on their sixth album tour ‘Strange Little Birds’.
Sultana continues to generate music buzz on the streets of Australia, on the radio, and through social media. True to her organic beginnings, she continues to post “bedroom recordings” on her YouTube channel.
More than an incredibly talented musician, Sultana is an inspiration. She appeared on TEDXUniMelb in May to speak about her struggle with drug-induced psychosis and how music therapy saved her life:
What I realized in my 21 years of life is that the only thing that really gets you through your life is learning how to be happy. I’ve taught myself through a series of destructive events that you can be really unhappy through really long periods of time. I taught myself through music therapy that I could develop clarity with my passion. I literally played the pain away.
Before playing her ephemeral hit “Notion”, Sultana sums up the passion so clearly present in her music: “This is what moves me.”
Sultana will be performing live in front of our KFOG audience for a private concert at Levi’s® Lounge on Thursday, February 23. She also has a performance that same evening at Swedish American Hall at 7:30pm.