ABOUT SALIO
Just occasionally, fact can be stranger than fiction. Salio, a singer songwriter from Tbilisi, Georgia boasts a rags to riches story more flat-out compelling than most. A remarkably gifted vocalist, she was born into a life of abject poverty, routinely having to go without food, hot water or electricity.
“We would boil water in an urn, and use candles for lighting,” she says. But this required a dexterity few children possessed, as Salio one day learned to her cost: “Once I set my hair on fire whilst doing my homework by candlelight.” And when her family finally got themselves an electricity generator....someone stole it.
At the age of six, she won her first singing competition, and, convinced that her natural talent would help her gain freedom from such Dickensian drudgery, and access to a better life, she spent the next two decades ensuring that nothing would stand in her way. Salio is now 29 years old and is at last watching her dream come true with both relief and a certain satisfaction. She is an impeccably cool vocalist, at times reminiscent of Moloko’s Roisin Murphy, at times able to out-gospel Aretha Franklin, and she has already partied with the likes of Jamiroquai, Maroon 5 and Earth, Wind & Fire. And as the video to her sublime single Let It Shine attests, the woman can smoke a cigarette with the poise of the very best cinematic femme fatales.
A true individual, Salio is the most exciting discovery of 2017.
She was born, a month prematurely, in Georgia, a country with a tumultuous history. Life was rarely easy for her cash-strapped parents, and poverty rendered their existence a dangerous one. Hunger prompted unrest, and unrest frequently spilled over into violence. “A number of my close friends have been murdered,” she says, matter-of-factly. She would go on to write a song about one of them, He Flew Away, after a school friend was stabbed and killed, aged 13.
By nine, she had managed to convince a local music teacher to give her singing lessons for free because the teacher believed in her innate ability. Later, when an ENT physician started to cry after examining her throat for signs of infection, the young singer wanted to know what the physician had seen. Was it bad news?
“She said that my throat was anatomically unique, and genetically disposed for singing,” she says.
Salio took the compliment, and ran with it. But her teenage years offered little in the way of balm, and she was routinely forced to subsist on precious little food, and no money: “I would resort to crashing strangers’ weddings in search of a hot meal.”
But still she hustled. She met a woman, claiming to be a white witch, who told her that she was going to be a successful singer, and that she would ultimately use her talents to open charities and help people. She began performing gigs, dressed in second-hand clothes sourced from charity shops, and if dogged determination was on her side, then so too was sheer luck: once, when faced with an electricity bill she had no way of paying, she used her last five dollars to enter a poker competition. She won $2000.
But she also made her own luck. When Jamiroquai arrived in her city to play a concert, Salio had no money for a ticket. “So I jumped the fence to break into the after party, and ended up partying with Jay Kay.”
Another time, she happened upon the organiser of the New Orleans Jazz and Blues Festival, Quint Davis, who for some reason was in Tibilisi, and in the same canteen as she. Fate, surely?
“I sang for him there and then, and he flew me out to the festival, where I ended up jamming with Maroon 5’s guitarist James Valentine,” she says.
For someone with her background to suddenly find herself on US soil singing before crowds of music fans was the stuff of fantasy - but a fantasy made vividly real. In New Orleans she wowed her audiences, and sang with jazz, R&B and gospel greats. Later, former Massive Attack cohort Tricky endorsed her music video for Let It Shine on his Facebook page, which sent many people to her own page. From here, she reached an international audience that is growing by the day.
And so no matter that, shortly after the New Orleans festival, she found herself penniless in New York, unable to fund her trip home - she ended up working in a Georgian cafe, singing to its patrons until she raised the airfare - because Salio is on her way at last. Her YouTube channel has hundreds of thousands of hits already, and she is currently in the final stages of recording her album, which will be released later in the year.
The aforementioned white witch, you suspect, isn’t surprised at the upswing in her fortunes; nor, presumably, that ENT physician. And neither, you sense, is Salio herself.
Some people were simply born to do this. Salio was, and now she is.
“1.Who are you as an artist? What is your story? My name is SALIO and I am a singer from the Republic of Georgia. I have been singing all my life and I am very lucky it has taken me to places all over the world. I was born in Tbilisi and wrote my first hit song ‘Varsklavebi’ or ‘Stars’ when I was 11 years of age which is now almost considered a national anthem in my home country. My home country is poor and there have been a number of influences which have caused violence and death personal to me. I wrote a song called ‘He Flew Away’ after my friend Giorgi was shot and killed outside my house a little while ago. This broke my heart and I think about him daily. Through my songs and lyrics I am trying to encourage people to think out with their own normality and explore new ideas and thoughts which may offer new opinions and perspectives to them aswell as make people happy in their reflection.”
“Known as a pop artist with an enigmatic side, Salio's new single ‘I Know You Know Me’ has exploded on radio and put this pop artist on the world map. There is something special happening with Salio, the talented pop artist out of Tblisi, Georgia. A firm believer in the time-honored tradition of composition and careful attention to detail, Salio's work demonstrates how personal and affecting music can be when the right elements come together. This legitimacy is discernible from other angles. She has a deep understanding of the techniques and traditions of the pop genre which is perhaps why the critics had this to say about her award-winning work: ‘Salio has created a vehemently-voiced pop classic that smoothly alternates between saturated instrumentality and intense lyrical sallies.’ Reporter Blake Wright recently caught up with this talented artist to learn more about her unique story and her plans for the future...”
Blake Wright - Marquis Global Network
“Salio is the modern relative of „Queen“. Great beautiful song ideas, and during the song always a surprise (for instance, a change you didn´t reckon with). I love her voice most when it´s low pitched, but she also brings along the talent of a soprano. Good Pop Music, and so I took the freedom to improve her likes a bit on Sound Cloud. She´s a power woman only in danger to be too sexy (which brings along the type of fans she surely doesn´t want). Good job, Salio. Onward!”
“A new recording by Georgian singer SALIO has been selected as the winning song of the month for the Akademia Music Award competition and will be on air to millions of listeners throughout the United States and beyond. Jury of the US-based contest unveiled the young artist’s song I Know You Know Me as winner of the Best Song nomination for Pop category for the month of May this week. Picked from submissions by over 100 artists, the track was praised by the judges for its diversity in sound. Salio has created a vehemently-voiced pop classic that smoothly alternates between saturated instrumentality and intense lyrical sallies”, said a summary for the selection...”
“‘Keep On Dancing’ by SALIO is the first commercial release since her debut EP ‘Lost World’ in 2016 and signifies a much more upbeat feeling from the Georgian songstress. “After the EP I felt that I needed to write something a little more fresh and positive so when I returned to Georgia from the UK I sat down with my producer Beqa Japaridze and began finishing the song. It had been dormant for a few of years and I felt that now was a nice time to release it as a start to the spring and leading into a new summer.” And she is right. The song - a cool dancey number featuring lyrics from Irakli Kakabadze - immediately taps into you and no matter what may be going on in your life you cannot help but feel the positive energy flow. It melts the snow and ice away whilst opening the windows for the sun to shine and demanding that the cocktails flow. SALIO is confirmed to perform at Tbilisi’s Open Air Festival on the 18th June and follow her as other dates worldwide are announced.”
“Wayside is the featured video release from the debut Lost World EP by SALIO. The video depicts some of the problems that we face as humans today and how we can show love where little or none exists to great effect. It was directed by Georgian videographer Yugo Morris and is a single shot. SALIO plays the waitress who despite suffering a lot of abuse herself, sees an opportunity to help a young girl escape an abusive future which she takes in the form of aiding her escape...”
Ruth Mckinsey - Women Of Substance Radio
“New York City (1 March 2017) - A mesmerizing new video for SALIO's ‘Keep on Dancing’ is now playing on YouTube. The video (produced and shot by Beqa Japaridze Shukvani) features dizzying and vertiginous footage of the band giving it a viral magnetic feel. You can catch the video at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImQq_kflvHo Meanwhile, the ’Keep on Dancing’ track (featuring lyrics by Irakli Kakabadze) will be featured on upcoming compilation from NYC- based Factory Fast mixCDs. Salio is a band from Georgia (Republic of Georgia, not state of Georgia in USA) created in summer 2012. SALIO is a Pop / Neo Soul / World singer / songwriter originally from Tbilisi, Georgia intent on making unique music that conjures vivid moods and feelings...”
“I was singing from a very early age according to my parents and I started listening to and loving the Georgian harmonic scale. Hamlet Gonashvili with his captivating and haunting uses of this scale made me love it even more. My family would always gather round the family table and sing together which inspired me to start writing my own songs when I was around 9 years old. I started getting into listening to Ella Fitzgerald and Janis Joplin from a very early age too and they inspired me more and more to sing as beautifully as possible. I have got the point now where I am working with different people to see what happens and I love exploring sound and attitude with the vocal being used to complement this...”
“My experience of the music industry is essentially trying to stay afloat as most people do on this planet but having a great time doing it. If anyone put in the work I have in any other business for the financial reward I have achieved there would probably be a law against it in most developed countries but I enjoy the work I do and the journey counts, no matter what the destination -@salio_official”
APM Team - American Pride Magazine
“With her storied past, Salio’s road to musical success is, in a word, incredible. Born to a poor family in Georgia, a country with a tumultuous history, Salio’s early life was one frought with hardship. Her life even began too early; she was born a month premature. Her family routinely went without food, hot water, or electricity. But despite all these setbacks, Salio knew music would not only be her future, but her salvation....”
“If you’ve heard ‘Wayside’, ‘Let it Shine’ or any other of SALIO’s music before, you’re already in on one of the most exciting secrets in music right now. Though it’s inevitable that her phenomenally brilliant pop tunes won’t allow this much longer, it hasn’t been the easiest journey to get where she is now. Hailing from The Republic of Georgia, Salio grew up in poverty, with restricted access to food, electricity and water. She began writing songs before she was ten years old, studying classical music and finding inspiration in artists like Janis Joplin, Etta James and Massive Attack. Thanks to her incredible talent, her music manifested itself as much more of a literal escape, leading to a “very successful time as a teenager in a band called Paparazzi, and [being] on television a lot”. Since then her music has come a long way, describing her old songs as “pretty cheap in comparison”, adding that “boys and love were the main subjects I was singing about..”
Tobias Pugh - Born Music Online
“Congratulations on your new EP! It is fabulous… how was the working process, are you happy with the result? I’d been working on lyrics and harmonies for almost a year and needed to sit down with a producer who understood the ideas and creative vision of my music. I was in London singing anywhere and everywhere, carrying a laptop and an APC on my back and just knocking on doors, speaking to bar people and trying to get opportunities to sing. At the same time I was staying in a warehouse community and a friend invited Jonathon Holder to come and say ‘hello’. We had a jam together and he invited me round to his studio to record. We wrote one terrible track over about a week and I had to tell him that I didn’t like it. So we scrapped it and started again, with a darker and more electronic sound. That became the title track, ‘Lost World’, and the others soon followed...”
“Georgian singer/songwriter Salio, is causing quite a stir with her catchy debut single ‘Wayside’ – released June 24th. This song is about overcoming difficulties and looking ahead to a brighter future. The track is lifted from her forthcoming album, due out later this year. Salio was talent spotted at the Black Sea Festival in the Republic of Georgia by producer Quint Davis, who organizes the New Orleans Jazz & Blues Festival. He was so impressed that he invited her to perform at the festival. Salio was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture for her trip to the US. She wowed audiences of thousands, and sang with jazz and gospel greats. Shortly afterwards, Salio was invited to perform at the Blue Note in New York, where she received a standing ovation. She won her first singing competition at the age of six, wrote her first song when she was 11, and was convinced that her natural talent would help her escape the awful poverty she was experiencing.”
Clive Morgan - The Daily Telegraph
“‘Your Lover’ was the first song written for the ‘Lost World’ EP. My boyfriend at the time and I were laughing about how utterly terrible most pop songs are and how they are generally about sex, greed and wealth or all three of them. We decided that that was where I was going wrong due to my relative lack of international success, so we started writing some lyrics...”
AVA Live Radio Team - Behind The Music
“After having moved from the Republic of Georgia (where she has already achieved nationwide fame) to London, SALIO recently released her debut EP Lost World, a collection of five power- and meaningful pop songs. She kindly agreed to answer a few questions about her life and music. Few can imagine what it was like to grow up in the Republic of Georgia of 20-30 years ago – would you mind telling us about it? Not at all. Despite having problems with things that are taken for granted nowadays – like a lot of places still – I loved growing up in Georgia. I remember there were always long queues of around 100 people to buy bread at the shops due to the Georgian Civil War when I was young. You were only allowed to buy one loaf of bread per person and families with young children were allowed to go to the front of the queue. It was nice back then as the Georgian people would help each other very selflessly and the community spirit of care and togetherness was wonderful....”
“Enya met Madonna in Georgia once. I’m not ashamed to admit, I like a good pop song. I see nothing wrong in that, especially nowadays where pop music itself has become a lot more mature. No longer just the refuge of genies in bottles or baby one more times. The themes are older, the sounds more intimate and grand and the subject matter is about the real problems in life. Georgian-born Salio endeavours to find that mix, contemporary sounding, soulful enigmatic pop with meaning; and in the case of her single ‘Lost World’ she achieves it handily. The subject matter comes from her personal history, which reads mostly like a Dickensian nightmare (read her story here) and with Salio it seems ‘Lost World’ is the end product of a long struggle with talent, circumstances, and ambition. With that being the case, the track doesn’t show any major signs of being filled with anguish. ’Lost World’ is a stylish pop lament about feeling out of place in the world....”
“From the Republic of Georgia to the world, it seems Salio was destined to bring her electric rhythms to gospel vibrations in her new EP Lost World. Discovered by acclaimed producer Quint Davis, head of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Salio has impressed thousands upon thousands for her vocal capacity at spiritual elevation. When you think of Gospel, you think of spiritual enlivenment, but not so much a bodily one. While Gospel music makes you want to free your spirit and electronica makes you want to free your body, when they combine they make you want to free yourself completely, i.e. Lost World EP. Salio's voice is naturally empowering and evocative, which is perfect for both genres. She can make you feel like the most beautiful person inside and out with just one vocal riff. Thus, what I love about Lost World is how new it is to both my ears and mind. You will never think dance, electro-pop can mix with gospel music, but you trust and understand why Salio.......”
“Georgian singer/songwriter Salio has recently released her debut EP “Lost World”, and is treading a similar path to fellow Georgian singer/songwriter Katie Melua. Causing a stir with her soulful debut single ‘Wayside’ from her debut EP, which also had a video premiered via The Telegraph, receiving positive feedback throughout the country. Salio’s debut EP features two main singles ‘Wayside’ and the title track ‘Lost World’, both of which display Salio’s soulful and out-going singing voice. ‘Wayside’ features more contemporary production whilst ‘Lost World’ is more tranquil and ambient a production. ‘Your Lover’ fuses electronic and Hip Hop (scratches) influences with Pop/R&B, with the production taking many twists and turns. Salio’s vocals are uplifting and sit on the beat smoothly, as she sings a tale of love. ‘Another Road’ and ‘Horizons’ close out the EP, the former featuring perhaps the most soulful sounding track on the release...”
“Salio is a global artist, and her new EP Lost Word is magnetic. Check my review! She is quickly rising as an international star because of her powerhouse vocals but also her powerful virtues. Her insightful answers show that this songstress has a warm soul eager to heal others through music. Having such a noble approach to music is bound to attract fans to listen to her unique style and one of a kind spirit. Diandra: Your songs are very based in virtue or the call for it. Which virtue do you believe the world needs now the most, and you wish your music to give? Salio: I think we require more empathy as humans in this world today. We have an incredible spectrum of people from the Amazonian natives to the Russian oligarchs and I think it is very I important that we think about and respect one another. For example, the refugee crisis in Syria is a humanitarian disaster. Families are fleeing their homes on long and dangerous journeys and, when they finally arrive in Europe.......”
“Tune in and listen to the talented voice of Salio, a 27-year-old singer/songwriter. First spotted in her hometown of Tbilisi in Georgia, Salio left a life of poverty and violence behind to sing at the New Orleans Jazz Festival and has since played at the Blue Note jazz club in New York. Her debut EP, Lost World, is out on Friday. Visit soundcloud.com/salioofficial/sets/lost-world-ep”
“Treading a similar path to Katie Melua, Georgian singer/songwriter Salio, is also causing quite a stir with her soulful debut single ‘Wayside’ taken from her debut EP ‘Lost World’ released July 1st. This is a track about overcoming difficulties of the past and looking ahead to a brighter future. The track is lifted from her forthcoming album, due out later this year. Salio was spotted at the Black Sea Festival in the Republic of Georgia by producer Quint Davis, who organizes the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. He was so blown away by her performance that he invited her to perform at the festival. Salio managed to get the Ministry of Culture to pay for her trip to the US. Once their, she wowed audiences of thousands, and sang with jazz and gospel greats. Shortly afterwards, Salio was invited to perform at the Blue Note in New York, where she again received a standing ovation...”
“For those who haven't yet heard your music, how best would you describe yourself as an artist? I would describe myself as a singer/songwriter with a point to make. Obviously I want people to enjoy my music but I truly hope it allows listeners to think at the same time and help them conjure new ideas and perspectives. Has music always been a big part of your life? Yes it has. I won my first singing competition when I was six-years-old and whenever I am doing anything I always need music to accompany it. Without music my life is dry. Music brings colour into my life. What are some of your earliest memories of music? When I was seven-years-old my mother bought three CDs; The Beatles, Elton John and Ray Charles. My favourite room in my house was the one with the least furniture and I used to dance with my little sister listening to these artists. 'Rocket Man' by Elton John was my favourite song to dance to back then and I still love it now.”
“SALIO OF REPUBLIC OF GEORGIA TO RELEASE DEBUT EP JULY 1ST: “LOST WORLD” Salio was discovered by producer, Quint Davis, at the Black Sea Festival. Shortly after, he delivered a well-earned invitation to Salio to perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival where she introduced herself to an entirely new set of adoring fans. Her single, “Wayside” and the accompanying music video have received a great deal of attention and her debut EP, Lost World, is due out July 1st. About “Wayside” Salio says: “This song is about some of the problems we face as humans in this world today. I think that if you show some kindness where little or none exists, you have the power to change people’s lives and then they, in turn, have the power to help other people too.” The EP captures an incredible amount of diversity that can’t be fathomed by simply listening to her single, “Wayside.” Salio’s voice can shape shift. In one song it holds the power, command and classic...”