Maiya Sykes is the best singer you never knew

Some of you know that I used to get paid to review music and musicians all over the world. Now that I am rarely paid to do this, I generally reserve comment for someone that truly impresses me.

Maiya Sykes is not a complete unknown. She had worked as a backup singer for huge acts from Michael Bublé and the Black Eyed Peas to Rita Ora and Joss Stone, all of whom regard her vocal abilities with awe.

Then around 2015, her appearance on The Voice caused all four judges to turn around within the first few bars, and her name was on social media’s lips for several weeks.

And it is not just that she was luckily born with a gift. She has spent a lifetime working and studying her craft like a surgeon. She graduated from Yale and continued at The Musician’s Institute, whose website indicates that she also studied independently under Betty Carter and Nina Simone (What??).

Maiya has already recorded a couple of critically acclaimed albums and continues pumping out all kinds of impressive performances. If this were the 70s, everyone would know her name like Aretha or Patti Labelle. I am not kidding. That is how good she is.

But we live in an era so inundated with output piling up by the millisecond, that we either need to dig deep, or randomly stumble upon this type of genius.

Some of you are fans, others may be deaf or have no taste. But for those of you who were not aware of her altogether, Google away!

I offer the perfect example. After finishing a session with Ben Folds’ gang of funky freaks, they had a few extra minutes and decided to improvise this mash-up of Etta James and Lauryn Hill songs.

This was apparently the first and ONLY take. Listen and watch this outstanding vocal performance then draw your own conclusions.