The 19-year-old Zimbabwean independent artist tells us the biggest challenges faced in balancing education and creativity in a new and exclusive interview.

On what seemed to be the hottest day of the year so far, and by miles the nicest day in London, I headed to Tasty Corner Cafe in central to meet Dréa The 19-year-old Zimbabwean singer-songwriter who I believe is going to make a name for herself alongside the likes of Laufey, Beabadoobee and Clairo, in the soft bedroom pop, jazzy rock but, very sweet space of music.

Upon first meeting her, I could tell she was made to be the coolest person ever, so it made sense that she belonged on the stage. She rocked up with some vintage shades, layered jewellery and an effortlessly cool outfit, exchanging niceties before she revealed that she was pretty nervous as this was her first interview. So, you get to be the first group of people to experience her thoughts and ambitions. 

We made our way into the charming little family-run cafe and got started, here is everything you need to know about Dréa, from how she balances music and university to her dream performances and even her favourite K-Pop artists.

Replay: “You look really young, like, how old are you?” 


Dréa: “I’m 19.
I’m in a uni right now.”  

Replay: “How do you, balance uni with, making music and building your platform?”  

Dréa: “I just try and do my work as little time as possible, and then in my free time, I like to make music or like post on social media and stuff.” 

Replay: “When did you start making music?”

Dréa: “Oh, so technically, I want to say 2022, because I did GCSE music, so that’s when I properly started it. But if we’re saying without being good at it, probably when I was a kid.”

Discussing the music industry a touch, I joked about the influencer-to-musician pipeline. At the time of the interview, Brittany Broski had just announced her first song, The Sun. Dréa mentioned that, if it wasn’t music, it was a brand – or in my case, a magazine.

Replay: “Continuing on, who would you say are your musical influences?”

Dréa: “I’m going to say Queen because I like their versatility, and then Kali Uchis because I like her vocal style. I like the way she sings. I don’t know, I try and incorporate a bit of both. I guess, I would also say, Laufey, Mei Semones a lot of like modern jazz artists.”

If I were to describe Dréa’s music would say that her songs sound kind of soft and sweet, like Laufey’s music. It kind of has that vibe where it’s like it’s just like comforting music.

Replay: “What kind of music do you like, just in general?”  

Dréa: “So, I listen to a lot of rock music. I listen to K-pop, a lot of RnB. Basically, I listen to most genres except from country music.” 

Replay: “When you get big and you make a random country track, I’m gonna pull you up on it.”

Dréa: “And the thing is like, that probably will happen.”

Replay: “Because like everyone does it like, oh, yeah, you’ve been hot for 20 years and then all of a sudden, yeehaw.”

Dréa: “Actually, to be fair, I don’t mind Dolly Parton. I like Dolly Parton.” 

Replay: “I feel like she’s the one like country artist that kind of gets the pass across genres.”

Dréa: “She’s my exception.”

Replay: “So, if there are three words only to ever exist in the world, which words would use to describe your music?”  

Dréa: “Oh, that’s a hard question. Dreamy. Authentic. I’ll say creative.”

Replay: “What’s been the hardest part of like getting into music for you?”

Dréa: “I’m gonna say the marketing because I’m like completely independent.

“I don’t have a manager or anything, I do everything myself. So, it’s kind of hard thinking of different ways to get myself out there and not having people get bored of my content. So, I sometimes go live on TikTok, but lowkey, I’m a bit shy, so I don’t do that often, but I try to. 

“I sometimes also my mum and I’m like, what do you think I should do? Because I feel like I’ve posted the same thing, and she’s like, oh, you should do like a day in the life, so I’m currently making a day. That’s the hardest bit for me.” 

Replay:  “I think you’re doing a good job. You turned up on my feed randomly, so you must be appearing for more people. Then, I wanted to ask you, who would you say is your biggest supporter?”


Dréa: “My mum. 

“My mum and my family, my mum is like, my biggest fan. Literally when I dropped the picnic song, which was like my first song ever, that I made in my bedroom. She went around her workplace, and she was telling everyone, “Oh, my daughter dropped her song, and you should listen to it.” I was like thank you, mummy. But yeah, I say like my mom, my sister, my family, you know.” 

Replay: “Where do you pick up inspiration for your songs?”  

Dréa: “As of right now, because my sleep schedule is a bit back to front, I’m normally awake at like 1 AM with my guitar and I just kind of play chords. 

“I do a lot of improvising, that’s how I write most of my songs because I found that when I just sit there and I’m like, oh, I want to write a song today, it just doesn’t happen. So, I just normally sit there, play chords, and then I improvise vocals, and I come up with something.”

Replay: “What would be your dream stage to perform on?”  

Dréa: “Oh, so, I’ve given this some thought, and I’ve concluded that it would probably be like Wembley OVO Arena.

“And you may be wondering, “Oh, why don’t you dream bigger because of stadiums?”, but, like, I feel like Wembley OVO, everyone would be able to see what’s happening. Most of the concerts I go to are Wembley OVO and it’s like, wow, I really want to be up there one day. 

“I thought about the O2 and like I couldn’t see from the nose bleeds, and I was like, I wouldn’t wish that upon other people. Yeah, for me it’s not even I wouldn’t even need to like sell it out, just to be able to play that would be really cool.”

Replay: “If you were to go on a tour, who would you want to headline for you, or who would you want a headline for?”


Dréa: “Oh, so I have a few options, it’s very random. There’s the Marias, Men I Trust, Rachel Chinouriri, Cat Burns, Flowerovlove and Saga Faye.” 

In gushing about Rachel Chinouriri and how we’re basically sisters – we’re both from Zimbabwe, Dréa let me know she was also from Zimbabwe. So really, Zimbabweans are up when it comes to the arts in the British music space – and I intend to collect interviews from all of my people.

One thing I love about Dréa and Rachel’s sound is that they both have this really British sound to their music but in different ways. I listen to Rachel and she could do a song for skins, that’s her kind of vibe. But Dréa, I think is more new age, but not house-y in the way most British tracks are these days.

Replay: “What’s one thing you can’t live without?”


Dréa: “Excluding the typical answers, like music and my family. I’d probably say going on random walks and exploring. 

“It sounds really random, but I feel like at least once a week I just have to be like, ‘Oh, I’ve got nothing to do today, so I’m just gonna walk around this area for an hour and explore’. I don’t know, it just makes me really happy.” 

Replay: “Where do you see yourself in like five years?”  

Dréa: “Five years. Well, hopefully, I would have done a performance in five years. I should have gotten a performance done by the end of this year or maybe next year, because [Saga Faye] said that she’d love for me to open for her, so that might be my first performance. I don’t know. It makes me nervous you know. 

“Five years, hopefully, I would have performed in some sort of big-ish venue. You know, met a bunch of people who like my music, that kind of stuff. Maybe like gone to different countries, done some small performances or something not really sure, but yeah, I’m trying to work with my following at the moment.

“Yeah, I have… how many songs do I have? Three of my own and I have one collab. So if I were to do a performance right now it would be like 20 minutes long.”

Replay: “It’s still a decent amount and then you can always pad it out with like covers and stuff. Because I think I remember when Olivia Rodrigo first blew up and she had one album with like ten songs and then people were like the tour is just her doing karaoke with a couple of songs and you know what, I vibe with it. 

“What would you say has been your biggest achievement so far?” 

Dréa: “Probably hitting 10K on TikTok and getting 10K streams on my song in like a month and a half. That insane to me, that was very insane to me, because I… to this day, I don’t really know how that happened. I’m not gonna lie to you, but I’m very proud of myself for that.” 

Replay: “My next question, which I wrote before you said, I was gonna say one of your songs, like went viral, like, how did that feel?” 

Dréa: “Oh, it felt Insane, it like let me connect to so many people that I didn’t think would acknowledge my existence. Rachel Chinoruriri was like, “I really like your song” and I was like ‘There is no way this just happened’. And it was literally like I must have seen it like 12:30 in the morning and I literally just called up my mum and I was like “Mum you’re not going to believe what just happened.” 

Replay: “Like that is insane. Like tour when? I would be like in her DM like, “Hey, bestie, you like my song? Need an opener?”” 

Dréa: “I think when she’s finished opening for Sabrina, I’m gonna drop her a message”

Replay: “And then when I go see Rachel and you’re on stage, I’m gonna be like, I know her! She’s my sister as well! 

“I was gonna say your fashion, absolutely slays.”

Dréa: “Thank you.”

Replay: “Where do you find inspiration for your outfits?” 

Dréa: “I’ve got three sources, so half of my wardrobe is like my mums from the 2000s. Like this shirt is my mum’s, so, there’s that. I stole her wardrobe. 

“Then there’s Pinterest. I like scrolling on Pinterest a lot and looking at like Y2K or layering. And then there’s this app called Xiaohongshu.”

Replay: “I love it”

Dréa: “The fashion is on that, yeah…” 

Replay: “It’s another level.” 

Dréa: “It hits different.” 

Replay: “Like the second TikTok got banned and everyone was moving, but I was like, it’s not banned for me, but I’m curious.” 

Dréa: “My fashion when I was in like year 12, so it is like two years ago, I say it was really simple. 

“And then I randomly discovered Xiaohongshu because someone was like, oh, if you wanna like level up your makeup game, go on this app, and I was like ‘say less’.”

Replay: “And you never went back”

Dréa: “Yeah, I never went back, so I went on there and I saw a lot of like fashion and makeup inspo. And it kind of gave me the confidence to be like, oh, I can just wear what I want to and people… if they question it then I’ve done a good job and then they don’t question it and I’ve done a good job, so that’s good.”

Replay: “Then I was gonna ask you about Aespa, like, how was it?” 

Dréa: “It was so good, so we got like lower seated, and the view was really good because it was like, I guess proportionately right next to the stage. And I was like, this is actually immaculate. 

“I had the time of my life. My friend literally went to heaven and came back. But yeah, their solos are really good.”

Replay: “I’m so jealous. I tried to get tickets but by the time I went to get the ticket, it was sold out.” 

Dréa: “I locked in. So, they had the first presale, and I was like, ‘I’m not gonna do that’ because I know that’s gonna sell out. So, I was like, let me do the live nation presale. 

“I must have gotten some sort of priority ticket. I don’t know how I did that because I don’t even have priority, but I was like, okay. And then I sat there contemplating.
I was like, that’s a lot of money though. Do I buy these tickets? And I was like, but I only live once and like, what if they never come back to the UK? So, I was like, yeah, fuck it, do it. Money comes back.” 

Replay: “What was your favourite song?” 

Dréa: “My favourite Aespa song is Flights Not Feelings. I really enjoyed Dopamine and Armageddon.”

Replay: “Do you have a bias”

Dréa: “I’m gonna say it switches between Ningning and Giselle, so after the concert, I think it was Giselle.
But, now they’re both kind of just equal.”

Replay: “Do you like any other groups?” 

Dréa: “I like Boy Next Door. I like Twice and I really like this group called Rescene, they’re a bit unknown, but I think they’re quite good.” 

Replay: “Did you have any other concert coming up?” 

Dréa: “I’m going to see Mei Semones, next Tuesday. She’s this like jazz… I don’t wanna box her in actually, she does quite a lot. She’s quite jazzy. 

“I’m going to one later today, I don’t I think I’m pretty sure it’s called [Home Grown by Discover Nü. And then in October, I’m seeing Men I Trust. Oh. Oh, oh, yeah. And then in May, there’s also this group called Bini from the Philippines. I’m going to watch them as well.”

After hearing about Dréa’s upcoming concert lineup, I made a note to grab myself some tickets to widen my music taste and we concluded the interview. 

You can check out Dréa on Instagram @drea._.szn, on TikTok @drea._.szn and check out her music on Spotify, same name as above. 

We can’t wait to see Dréa blossom and we will definitely be getting barricade to her show.