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Nov 27, 20203 min read

Nadia Vaeh – ‘Holidazed and Confused’

Review by Matt Wong & Staff

The W.A M. Awards celebrate the year’s most outstanding independent artists from around the world in multiple genres and categories. "Best Song" and "Best Album" nominations were based on Artistry, Musicianship, Originality, Professionalism, Diversity, and Excellence. W.A.M. stands for "We Are the Music Makers.' Nadia Vaeh's song "Holidazed & Confused" was the 2020 W.A.M. Award Winner for Best Song in the Holiday music category.


“Holidazed and Confused” gets to the point immediately and begins with the chorus. In addition to Nadia’s captivating vocals that grabs and pulls listeners in from the first note, the chorus features a strong beat, a tight bass, and a catchy single note ostinato that sits in the background, and does not compete with the melody. Coming out of the chorus, the production slims down in vocal layers, and creates an intimate listening experience for the listener to digest the story behind the lyrics. In addition, beautiful background vocals pop in and out to accent the key phrases in the lyrics. After another smashing chorus, the song enters its second verse.

The second verse differs subtly in arrangement, with a hi-hat figure in the beat, and a repeating 16th note line to complement and add melodic density to the existing single note ostinato. Following the second verse is the bridge, which is cleverly crafted to build anticipation for the chorus. By stripping the beat down to just kick drum, the arrangement for the bridge overtly contrasts from the rest of the song, keeping the listener on their toes, resolving with the final chorus.

The lyrics in “Holidazed and Confused” are about missing someone during the holidays. Conveying the emotions associated with this situation, Nadia sings about how “I’ve been skipping all the invites to these Christmas parties” and how “this time of year is always hard for me to handle.” With the chorus, Nadia wraps all the emotions together and sings about how “I can’t help but missing you” and “Angel face- no longer in the room.”

“Holidazed and Confused” by Nadia Vaeh is an impactful song that is well written and produced. The melody is memorable, the lyrics are meaningful, and the song’s groove is infectious. Delivered with Nadia’s outstanding vocal ability, and an effective arrangement, this song will stop listeners in their tracks and pull them in. Connect on Instagram.


Stream on Spotify.

For more information on Nadia Vaeh, please visit her website.

 

About Nadia Vaeh


Atlanta native and IMA “Vox Pop” winner, Nadia Vaeh found her way into artistry through modeling and joining a local Atlanta circus. She started singing in circus productions, but this was not the beginning of her artistic roots. Nadia’s love of music and singing began at the age of two and was later nurtured by her parents by placing her into a traveling youth choir. Her mother was a poet who passed on her love of words, which later fueled Nadia’s talent as a lyricist. Nadia’s life took an unexpected turn at the age of 17 when she lost her mother to suicide. She dismantled her high-school band and strayed from songwriting and singing for years, other than the occasional karaoke.

After this tragic loss, she states that she went down a path of self-sabotage and destruction and used relationships and partying to ignore her pain. When she finally decided to begin again with artistry, which would ultimately save her life, she was a shell of a person and looking to anyone and anything for answers to deal with her heartbreak. “I made a lot of missteps in the beginnings of my career and had to learn a lot of things the hard way.” Vaeh loves to pull inspiration for her music through many genres and sounds from all over the world with much of her musicality rooted in her family's time in Curaçao and her father's homeland of Lebanon. For Vaeh, songwriting is not only personally healing but is also a platform to help others heal and make waves with social matters.

 


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