Malaya

Malaya (Malaya Watson) is a Detroit-raised, Filipino-American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist whose music fuses electronic and soul textures into an organic strain of indie R&B. She first caught the public eye as a teenager on Season 13 of American Idol, where she became one of the youngest contestants in the show's history to reach the live finals — a run that saw judge Jennifer Lopez tip her as a front-runner before she finished in the top eight. In the years since, she's built a collaborator list that reaches across jazz, hip-hop, and soul: an EP with Grammy-nominated producer Terrace Martin, a feature on Snoop Dogg Presents Algorithm (The Global Edition), and 2020's "In A New Place" with Grammy-winning producer Ricky Reed, plus stages shared with Theo Croker and Greg Phillinganes. Within the OFFRIP family, her voice anchors "Joint 3" on Cisco Swank and Luke Titus's Some Things Take Time.