Zora

Zora is a 23-year-old artist, producer, singer, and rapper. She has been writing music since the age of 14, taking inspiration from Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Janet Jackson, Prince, Kendrick Lamar, SOPHIE, and so many others. Zora’s sound can be described as Alternative Pop. She writes, produces, and records all of her own stuff, using instruments such as the piano, the ES2 synth, and electric guitar to bring her ideas to life.

Originally, she began as a classically trained pianist, from ages 6 to 10, taking after her family history of classical pianists. She was set in pursuing that as a career before becoming involved in opera and musical theater at LACHSA at age 13. It was here that she began to discover her love for performing. She could not get enough of the stage lights, choreography, charisma, and charm that it took to put on such spectacular shows.

At age 14, she started to go to parties with her dad, Barry Robinson, and help him during his DJ sets, suggesting songs for him to play as the night went on. In doing so, Zora found her love for hip-hop and pop music. Artists like Lauryn Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, and Janet Jackson would mold her into the pop artist that she is today. She collected all of the records along with her dad and found a new love for popular music.

After getting rejected from the vocal jazz program at her school, Zora was put into a music technology class, which she initially despised. Little did she know this class would be a blessing in disguise. Zora began studying choreography of artists such as Britney Spears, Janet Jackson, and Beyoncé, and started creating original songs that she could then choreograph. Zora started messing around with synthesizers, vocoders, and Logic Pro X, and began to fall in love with the music software. By age 15, she had released her first EP, titled Scene One, inspired by the works of Lauryn Hill and Jill Scott. Later that year, she released her debut mixtape, City Lights, at the age of 16.

At age 17, Zora moved on to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston for three years, and released her second mixtape, Millennial, at age 18. Here, she was able to merge her love of singing, producing, and dancing, and began putting on one hour shows at the Berklee Cafeteria. At age 20, Zora headlined her first festival, “Meet the Ground” Festival, and received her first ever write up from the Berklee Press.

At age 21, Zora moved on from Berklee and relocated to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where she began crafting her official debut album, Z1. It was during this time that she began to learn how to play the electric guitar, so she could be like Prince. She learned to play guitar as she crafted this album, working alongside her cousin to help her out with some of the songs. At age 22, Z1 was officially released and received critical acclaim, Zora’s biggest launch yet.

Zora’s main mission within music is to spread awareness, positivity, and freedom of expression. It is her main belief that people are only truly happy when they’re able to be exactly who they are, at all times. Zora implements these messages in her lyricism and hopes to be able to impact the lives of others in a positive way, no matter how widespread.