AViVA

An Australian singer and songwriter whose moody, defiant electro-pop falls in the realm of artists like Lorde and Billie Eilish, AViVA had her first viral smash with “GRRRLS,” her debut under the mononym. Released in 2017, she followed it with a series of singles including 2018′s “Blame It on the Kids,” which also garnered millions of streams. In 2020, those two tracks opened her full-length debut, VOLUME I, which she followed up with VOLUME II in 2021.
Born Aviva Anastasia Payne in Sydney in the mid-’90s, AViVA grew up having a father and uncles who were musicians. She studied violin in her youth and eventually pursued a degree in theater and education at the University of Notre Dame Australia. While still in her early twenties, she released the left-field electro-pop song “Crystaleyes” under a slightly tweaked moniker before emerging with the stylized AViVA on the hookier “GRRRLS” in late 2017. The song surpassed 100 million streams before the end of 2018.
AViVA released her next single, “Drown,” in early 2018, one of several singles she issued throughout the year, including “Blame It on the Kids.” The year 2019 brought songs including “Blackout” and “Rabbit Hole,” which continued her streak of million-plus streaming successes. All the aforementioned tracks were included on her debut album, VOLUME I, in June 2020. Before the end of the year, AViVA delivered singles like “HOUDINI” and “TWISTED” that would appear on October 2021′s VOLUME II. “The Saint and the Sinner” and “Broken,” a collaboration with the Tech Thieves, followed in 2022 in anticipation of her third album. ~ Marcy Donelson