Early years and iiO Nadia Ali was born in Libya to Pakistani parents in 1980. The family relocated to Queens, New York City, when she was still a child, and has remained there. Ali has stated in interviews that the music that most influenced her growing up includes Stevie Nicks, Sade, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, U2, Madonna, Led Zeppelin, Carole King, Carly Simon and The Beatles. A 17 year old Ali was working in the New York offices of Versace, and aspiring to start a music career, when a co-worker introduced her to producer Markus Moser, who was looking for a female singer to collaborate on some of his original dance music production. The two teamed up and started a group that was originally named “Vaiio”, named after the Sony laptop Nadia was working on. They later dropped the “va” to avoid causing problems in the future with Sony. Working with Moser, she wrote the lyrics and the vocals for the songs. After the success of the 2001 hit “Rapture”, the single was remixed many times by the likes of Armin Van Buuren, John Creamer & Stephane K and Deep Dish with bootleg and white label remixes emerging as well. The duo toured all over the world for years and released more singles, including “At the End”, “Runaway”, “Smooth” and “Kiss You”. Ali left the group in 2005 to pursue a solo career and released her debut album, Poetica, in 2006, while Moser continues to release iiO material featuring her on vocals. Most notably, these releases include the 2006 single “Is It Love?” which went to #1 in America on the Billboard Dance Chart, and the 2007 Album Reconstruction Time: The Best Of iiO Remixed. Solo career After leaving iiO, Ali toured extensively and collaborated with prominent DJs and producers. The first, “Who is Watching”, was a collaboration with DJ/Producer Armin Van Buuren which appeared on his 2005 album Shivers. Followed by “Something to Lose” in 2006, a duet with singer-songwriter Rosko, produced by Creamer & K and released by Ultra Records. Championed on the UK’s BBC Radio 1 by influential DJ and tastemaker Pete Tong, the track was licensed to Roger Sanchez’s “Release Yourself vol. 5,” as well as Sharam Tayebi of Deep Dish for his Global Underground debut Dubai. Additionally, Nadia was featured on MTV Iggy in March 2009, where she recorded 3 live acoustic videos performing “Rapture”, “Crash and Burn” and “Love Story”. Embers Busy touring, Nadia did not release anything until 2008 when “Crash And Burn” the first single from her yet to be released debut album Embers was released on June 17, 2008 to iTunes. The song was produced by Fritzy, and the EP included remixes by Dean Coleman, DJ Shah, Sultan & Ned Shepard, Astro & Glyde, Justin Thomas, Kered & Kiraly and Dilamani & Rassek. “Crash and Burn”, has become a club smash, peaking at number 6 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play Chart. On February 10, 2009, Ali released her follow-up single to Crash and Burn titled “Love Story” exclusively on BeatPort. It was subsequently released on iTunes the following month. Produced by Sultan and Ned Shepard, the single includes a number of remixes, by Andy Moor, Sultan and Ned Shepard and The Starkillers. The single proved to be a club success, reaching number one on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play Chart in April 2009. On March 23, BeatPort released Love Story (Part 2) exclusively. This set features remixes from Fritzy & Stylz, the Scumfrog, Dresden & Johnston and Victor Franco. The EP also became available on iTunes titled as Love Story (Les Remixes Noirs). Her next single to follow was called “Fine Print”, released July 1, 2009 on Beatport, then August 1 on other digital retailers, with remixes from tyDi, Fritzy, Serge Devant, Alex Sayz, Andy Harding and Carl Tricks. The single peaked at number 4 on Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play Chart.[8] Ali announced that the single preceded her album, Embers, along with a release date of September 15 on all digital retailers. Ali reached the top 20 of Billboard’s Hot Dance Club Play Artists Music Charts in 2009, peaking at number 15. Ali’s next single was “Fantasy” from her album Embers. iTunes and Beatport exclusively released the single on April 27, 2010. Following suit on May 25, the Morgan Page and Rachael Starr remixes were released. Alongside the remixes, the official music video for “Fantasy” premiered on Nadia’s YouTube channel. Collaborations|Soon after the release of Embers, a string of collaborations with other DJs were released. Her song, “Better Run”, with Tocadisco was released online in September on Tocadisco’s album TOCA 128.0 FM and the single was released in January 2010. “12 Wives In Tehran” with Serge Devant was released on his album Wanderer in June 2009, and the single was released in December 2009. Ali co-wrote and sang on the track “Try” on German artist Schiller’s album Atemlos, released in Germany on March 12, 2010. Chosen as the lead single in Germany, the music video premiered on YouTube on February 19, 2010.[11] Around the same time, remixes of her upcoming collaboration “That Day” with Dresden and Johnston were leaked online. On July 13, 2010 Ali’s collaboration with the Swiss Duo Chris Reece “The Notice” was released on all digital retailers. Ali’s next collaboration “Feels So Good” with Dutch DJ Armin Van Buuren was released on his fourth album Mirage on September 10, 2010. On October 14, 2010, Armin Van Buuren premiered the Max Graham and Protoculture Remix of ‘Call My Name’, the much anticipated collaboration by Nadia and Sultan and Ned Shepard, on his weekly radio show, A State of Trance. Apart from writing her own songs, Ali according to her Facebook page is also writing songs for and collaborating with several DJs and producers, which include BT, Matt Darey, Tocadisco, Tritonal, Andy Moor, Hardwell, Morgan Page, Starkillers amongst others. Queen of Clubs Trilogy The Fantasy music video also introduced the Queen of Clubs Trilogy: Best of Nadia Ali Remixed - a collection of greatest hits - featuring Nadia as the Queen of Clubs. Highlighting the “Queen of Clubs” theme, the music video began the countdown to the August 2010 release of the Trilogy compilation. The package will be broken into 3 releases titled Ruby Edition (August 2010), Onyx Edition (October 2010), and finally Diamond Edition (December 2010). The first installment, Ruby Edition was released on August 31, 2010. The package includes remixes by several DJs including Justin Michael & Kemal, Green & Falkner, Wippenberg, Thomas Gold, Serge Devant, Andretta, Noel Sanger, Morgan Page, Sultan & Ned Shepard, Dean Coleman and Fritzy. |
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