Zarif Davidson, known professionally as Zarif, is a British singer-songwriter of Scottish-Iranian-Jewish descent whose music ranges from soul to funk to pop. She performs with a nine piece band and sometimes plays keyboard and guitar.
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Zarif grew up in Harrow, London with her Scottish father and her Jewish-Iranian mother. As a child, Zarif loved listening to music and some of her favourite artists are Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Prince, and Aretha Franklin. She wrote her first song as an entry to a Blue Peter Competition and formed a girl band with her friends called Girls of Tomorrow. Zarif was educated at North London Collegiate and then went on to University College London where she graduated with a Human Sciences degree.
Before starting her solo career, Zarif was a backing singer in the funk and soul band Retrogression as well as working as a nanny, secretary, shop assistant and an occasional member of Scarlet's Well. As a solo artist, she performed in a series of venues in London in the city's soul singer-songwriter open mic circuit. The Nextmen saw her at one of these gigs and asked her to perform on three tracks on their critically acclaimed album, This Was Supposed To Be The Future as well as tour with them over the summer of 2007.
It was also at one of the open mic gigs that Zarif was spotted by a talent scout from Sony BMG and as a result she was signed to RCA Records in 2007. After being signed Zarif performed with John Legend and supported Taio Cruz and Chris Brown. She has performed live on BBC Radio 2, BBC London and GMTV.
In December 2008 Zarif's song, "Box of Secrets", was featured in an advert for Sky1 and was released as a download. Her debut single, "Let Me Back", was released in April 2009 and her second single, "Over", will be released on August 2009. In March 2009 Zarif started recording some new songs with The Nextmen. It was announced in April 2009 that she had been chosen to support Beyoncé on her I Am... UK Tour throughout Spring 2009. She will also be performing at the Glastonbury Festival, O2 Wireless Festival. and V Festival in summer 2009.
Zarif has described her sound as "soulful and summery" and "upbeat and eclectic".
The Guardian named Zarif "the next big thing in British soul" and Billboard Magazine said she was like "Amy Winehouse with Madonna's pop flair." Also theguardian.co.uk described Zarif as a "chirpy, sassy cross between Lily Allen and Corinne Bailey Rae, or a lighter, frothier, poppier Amy Winehouse".
Touch Magazine said Zarif "exudes the kind of delicious, chocolaty tones and gut-wrenching melodies that Scott, Stone and even Wonder would applaud" and Hot Press said she has "a voice like a 21st century Diana Ross."
She is often compared to Amy Winehouse, however Zarif has said, "People are always going to try and find a comparison. I think our music's actually very different," to Digital Spy, "Obviously we're both kind of retro, but [my music is] a lot more upbeat and eclectic whereas [Amy Winehouses'] is more influenced by Motown. I can definitely see the similarities but I think at the same time that we do different things."
Zarif
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