Zella Day

One Liner: Pop artist who sometimes sounds like Lana Del Rey and who is not desert rock.

Wikipedia Genre: Indie pop, desert rock
Home: Pinetop-Lakeside, Arizona

Poster Position: Late Addition
Weekend One Only.

Friday at 5pm on the BMI Stage.

Thoughts:  She started making music when she was freaking nine - picking up a guitar and making music at the encouragement of her mom.  She initially released her first album at the age of 14 with the help of a family friend bankrolling the release, and it caught the attention of labels and she got connected with some bigger name writers to hone her sound.

But the description of her earlier music is for sure odd to read while I'm listening to her most popular tunes - this ain't what I would call "desert rock" or "influence[d] from the classic singer-songwriter records of her parents and the mystique of the rugged desert landscape around her."  The tune I hear right now sounds more like Doja Cat than a desert rat singer songwriter.

Just one album - 2015's Kicker.  Which seems weird.  That was six years ago!  Her two top streamers (and big by a large margin compared to her other songs) are from that album.  "Hypnotic" has 68 million streams.

Like, what about that would lead anyone to call that music singer/songwriter stuff that was inspired by the desert?  Just sounds like another pop singer writhing around on the floor of a cold stage hoping to become a star.  Can't say I really care for it.  

She also does a lot of covers - "Seven Nation Army," "You Sexy Thing," "Crazy Train" (which she makes kinda disco-fied?) - some of these other ones could be covers too, for all I know.  And one of the most popular tracks on her Spotify, will sound very familiar to lots of people since its a Lana Del Rey song that Day just appears on.  She actually sounds a lot like Lana at times.

I'll give you her newest single as well - 2021's "Golden" - with 482k streams.

I dig the funkiness that the bass line throws in there, but again, this is sounding more like some disco-fied country tune, and yet she's in that video doing some vogue stuff in an outfit from Frederick's of Hollywood.  

I don't care for this.  I wouldn't go watch it.