Mavi Phoenix

Austria's Mavi Phoenix blends pop, rap, and R&B into a hard-to-classify but catchy mix. Born to a family with Syrian roots (his grandfather came to Vienna in the '70s as a refugee), the rapper-singer/songwriter-multi-instrumentalist grew up attending English-speaking schools and listening to rock acts such as David Bowie and Queens of the Stone Age. When he was 11, he began playing guitar and producing his own music in GarageBand after his father gave him an old MacBook. His musical tastes grew to include Kanye West and Drake, as well as Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga, and he chose the performing name Mavi Phoenix as a tribute to actor River Phoenix as well as for its symbolic meaning of renewal. In 2013, Phoenix won Lautstark, an Austrian music competition; he followed this success with his 2014 debut EP, My Fault, which featured the single "Green Queen." Though he began studying political science in 2015, he released the M.P. collaboration "Little by Little" that year. In 2016, he issued "Quiet," the lead track from his 2017 EP Young Prophet, which also spawned the singles "Love Longtime," "Fly," and "Aventura." ~ Heather Phares