Fana Hues

From the venue:

When singer-songwriter Fana Hues was a child, illness took away her voice for almost five years. “I had scarlet fever, tonsillitis, and strep throat at the same time,” the 25-year-old from Pasadena, CA recalls about the years she spent yearning to sing—years her mother, a dancer and healer, spent concocting natural medicines and elixirs that would eventually restore her voice. A challenging and humbling experience, Fana’s period of near voicelessness, led her to appreciate both the power of healing and realize her purpose as a musician at a young age. A student of R&B’s masterful vocalists Nina Simone, Dionne Warwick, Anita Baker, Beyonce Knowles, and Mary J. Blige, and one of nine children, Fana was raised within a large, musical family. Her father, a bass, guitar and piano player, taught her and her sisters how to sing. “I don’t remember a time when I wasn’t learning harmonies,” Fana remembers, illustrating a home environment built to foster her passion. “Music is literally in the fabric of our family and our bond as a family,” she says about her relatives, who make appearances in the form of memories in the self- conceptualized video for single, “Notice Me”. Her family is also the inspiration behind the moniker Hues, named to reflect their surname Hughes as well as Fana’s intention to be innovative in her approach. “I want to capture all the different shades of one idea,” she explains about bending and twisting R&B, and bringing elements of herself to the genre.