Style Watch: Ayọ

We have been seeing more and more foreign artists making their way over to the U.S. as of late, and the diversity of our entertainment industry continues to grow as far as what people are interested in seeing and hearing. The artist below, Ayo, is not particularly a "new" artist per se, but unbeknownst to me until yesterday did I stumble across seeing this culturally inspiring video. Ayo, who is a Nigerian-German singer-songwriter, falling into the folk-soul-reggae genres, has been quite successful overseas since 2001 where in 2006, her debut album, "Joyful", was certified double platinum in France, and gained other high certifications in Germany, Portland, Switzerland, Italy, and Greece. Her album then made it to the U.S. market in 2007, and since then has created two more albums, the last of which, "Billie-Eve",  was released in March of 2011. This video below, "I'm Gonna Dance" was released as her lead single from Billie-Eve.

When I first saw this video, Ayo dazzled me with her ethnic street look, and the energy continued to crescendo with lots of movement along with her funky sound, all-the-while her looks in different scenes became all the more dynamic, interesting, fresh, and edgy. This video, in my fashion, really spoke to me because she exudes an easy confidence, and natural aura that makes her song genuinely enjoyable to listen to and be captivated by because the video is filled with a spirit of youth and fun, as well as fantastic visuals posed by this Swedish songstress. It will be interesting to see how she continues to develop from here. I implore all to see more from Ayo, here.