AMPLIFI March 2022

A new series of shows curated by Arusa Qureshi and Halina Rifai to showcase the sounds of modern Scotland.

Staged in our new performance space at The Queen’s Hall, this is an exciting opportunity to see new and rising artists in an intimate setting designed to amplify their voices.

The artists have been hand-picked by Arusa Qureshi and Halina Rifai who will also compere the evenings. They say, “Scotland is home to so many incredibly talented artists of all backgrounds and disciplines, who demonstrate perfectly the vibrancy of our music scene. AMPLIFI is a way to spotlight some of our very favourites, while also welcoming audiences back to live music in a more intimate setting. We're thrilled to be working with The Queen's Hall on this series and can't wait to celebrate these brilliant emerging voices with fellow music fans!"

Performers:

Brownbear Hailing from Ayrshire, in just a few years Brownbear have taken themselves from a band tipped to do big things to selling out headline shows, sharing the stage with the likes of The Libertines, The View, Reverend & The Makers and Michael Kiwanuka. With their debut album 'What is Home?' and a string of sold out headline shows already under their belt, Brownbear are getting ready to hit the live circuit again with brand new material. The first new offering since 2018, ‘Retro’, dropped in March 2020. The band's second album will be released late 2022.

Paix Alongside creatively producing and leading on projects, Paix receives commissions and collaborates with national and international artists to make records, live performance, film and digital performance. Her latest projects include, three short films, co-writing and performing three tracks on the album 'With Love, From Glasgow' from Producer and DJ Rebecca Vasmant, which made the Top 10 on the UK and International Jazz Charts, respectively. In January 2022 she released the first of two EPs entitled 'Healing I'.

Bee Asha Bee Asha Singh is a spoken word artist born and living in Edinburgh. Between Rap and Poetry her work is a cathartic outlet she uses to explore themes of sexuality, trauma and gender equality, characterised by an openness to talk about her lived experiences. In 2019 Asha starred in the BBC Documentary, 'Spit it Out'. This year she has co-founded award-winning charity, The Spit it Out Project, released her first album ‘From Girl to Men’, won the SAMA best newcomer award and was featured in YWCA 30 under 30’s.

Curators:

Arusa Qureshi is an award-winning writer, editor and speaker with a passion for music, diversity and accessibility within arts and culture. Her book about women in UK hip hop, ‘Flip the Script’, is out now via 404 Ink. She has bylines in The Guardian, NME, Clash, Time Out, The Forty-Five and The Scotsman, and is part of the We Are Here Scotland team, supporting and amplifying the voices of creatives of colour in Scotland.

Halina Rifai is a podcast producer, music writer, PR & digital marketer. She founded music site Podcart in 2009 and has gone onto become a podcast producer, working with the likes of BBC Scotland, The Big Light, Mental Health Foundation, Fringe of Colour and more. She works within PR & Marketing with Scottish Women Inventing Music and Dardishi, a creative platform for Arab & North African women and gender monitories. She is also Communications Co-Manager for We Are Here Scotland, a space aimed at supporting and raising the voices of Black people and people of colour artists and creatives across Scotland.

Supported by Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council.

Presented by The Queen’s Hall.