The events and entertainment industry is one of the industries that was probably hit the hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Actors, musicians, and singers lost a large part of their income. Some made a virtue of necessity, like Dubai based Dutch producer and singer/ song writer LYZZ. Who reinvented herself.
By Arthur Blok
“It was a quite difficult time indeed, but I had the advantage of living in Dubai where live entertainment was allowed roughly half of 2020”, LYZZ (real name Lisa Dijkman) said.
A sharp contrast with the situation of many performers in Europe where almost all the café’s, restaurants and clubs were closed last year. LYZZ: “I was able to work from September till January and it was quite busy as well. Many of my colleagues in the Netherlands for example had to stop doing music and find another profession. That is very painful.”
LYZZ introduces a unique and new fresh sound. Her style is best described as a mix of melodic techno, progressive house, and dreamy, dark pop. She grew up in a musical family as the daughter of a guitar builder and started singing and playing guitar from a young age, as a teenager she switched from guitar to piano.
Life of a performer
She has been in full-time pursuit of her passion as a performing musician and studio musician since she was 18 years old. LYZZ ‘loves the life’ of a performer, despite the challenging times that come with it. Since 2014 she is based in Dubai.
“You need to get used to being worried sometimes. Challenging times are part of the job. There were times that I also had other work on the side, but in the past year’s things have worked out fine for me. It did not make me rich or anything, but I was able to make a good living out of it. That makes me incredibly happy.”
LYZZ is an exceptionally talented all-round performer. She is a completely self-taught singer, pianist, and music producer. She worked with various Dutch artists and TV personalities and had performances on radio shows in the Netherlands. She even had the honour to perform her music live for military personnel based in Afghanistan.
She had a rather creative approach to the challenges that came with the Covid 19 pandemic. She went back to her roots: song writing and music production in the studio.
“With less gigs due to Covid, I simply had more time to go back into the studio. When you are performing five or six nights a week you do not always have the energy to sit the whole day in the studio, record your voice and work on new music productions. The free time that came with the pandemic created a whole new momentum for me.”
LYZZ decided to focus more on music production. She took various courses and online lessons from other renowned music producers using mainly Zoom. “By doing so I learned how to make a proper mix and all the other technical work that is part of that process”, she added.
As a result of her hard work, she has reinvented herself with working on new electronic music productions including song writing. “While being in the studio so often I realized that I like heavy, deep sounds, and good house beats. I was rediscovering myself in a way. All of a sudden, I said to myself: I really love to make house music. Especially the fusion with deep vocals.”
This resulted in a first release in the summer of 2020 Madhouse, and five other catchy tracks such as Break the Silence and Still Waiting (window below). Her seventh track Jubilee will be out Monday the 24th of May: a track that be perfectly suited at an open-air outdoors festival at the beginning of the evening when the sun starts to go down.
In the coming months LYZZ is moving, partly, to Berlin where she aims to play more at dance festivals and in techno clubs: “a great fit for my new music style. But of course, I will stay connected to Dubai and the UAE as well. I will still be performing on special events. This is a fantastic city indeed.”
LYZZ has her own dynamic website that can be found here, and is very active on social media such as Instagram, YouTube and of course Facebook where you can find all her latest news and songs. For a complete overview visit Linktree, or her Spotify artist profile.
Her fantastic new song Jubilee is out now. Find your favorite streaming link here.
