Miss Kaninna shares new single 'Push Up'

 

Proud Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali woman & multi-award-winning Naarm/Melbourne-via-lutriwita/Tasmania artist MISS KANINNA (she/her) today shares her first release of 2024: 'Push Up', ahead of appearances at Listen Out nationally, Spin Off Festival, Wonder Mountain and a support for Hiatus Kaiyote, also performing at City Recital Hall for Queens Ball x Heaps Gay & QPAC's Clancestry (all dates below). A come-hither track that's ripe for the dance floor, 'Push Up' celebrates freedom of sexuality and marks the first time the wide-ranging artist has put her commanding singing voice on display outside of live shows. The release comes ahead of her to-be-announced debut EP, due out later this year.

Following high-profile attention for the one-two punch of her 2023 singles 'Blak Britney' & 'Pinnacle Bitch' with 1.5m streams across both tracks, each securing praise from around the world & twin syncs on season two Netflix's #1 series Heartbreak High - the former as the trailer's soundtrack, a first for a First Nations woman from "so-called-Australia" - Miss Kaninna continues to not just break, but remake (or reclaim) the mould. With a staunch commitment to speaking truth to power via EVERY stage and platform she graces with her presence - "This is my path," she asserts, "for me it is a lifetime commitment, a marathon over a sprint", Miss Kaninna was named News Corp's #1 Best New Talent In 2024 (with heavy coverage on the musician across all their national newspaper publications) and has drawn support from the likes of The Guardian, Complex, Rolling Stone, was The Music's final cover artist of 2023, scored Yahoo! / Music Feeds' #1 song of 2023 out of so-called AU ('Blak Britney'), and was featured on Apple Music 1's The Ebro Show, KEXP, KCRW, BBC Radio 6, iHeartAustralia, triple j (who added both songs to high rotation & named her Unearthed Artist of the Year 2023,  with countless presenters voting for her music in the station's Hottest 100); tastemakers Astral People spotlit her as of their Best Music Discoveries 2023 and many more, including strong playlisting on DSPs, notably the cover of Spotify's the hybrid, and key adds to Fresh Finds, The Drip, The Local List, multiple New Music Fridays & Apple Music's Wildflower, The Sound, Rap Life Radio & Amazon's Best of 2023: Down Under - all with only two singles out in the world, as as she draws us further into her world of "Black pop"  - reclaiming full use of the word 'Black' to "Collectively refer to Black & Indigenous people globally rather than setting Aboriginal people apart & diluting their Blackness."

An uptempo yet dizzyingly soft pop / R&B offering that features buttery synth glides and 808 cowbell, 'Push Up' instantly envelops the listener in a warm, dreamy atmosphere, evoking the feeling of meeting an enticing stranger's eyes a sweaty summer night. Producer Jacob Farah (Dean Brady, KYE, Adrian Eagle) brings Amapiano and Afrobeats influences to Miss Kaninna's sound - also a reflection of the music she grew up loving. Already well-known for her "braggadocious bars" (Acclaim Magazine), with 'Push Up', Miss Kaninna puts her formidable singing voice on display via silky stacked vocals; a masterfully restrained demonstration of the "local legend"'s (Pedestrian) huge range, contrasted with the hard-hitting 'Blak Britney' and 'Pinnacle Bitch'. The track was inspired by Miss Kaninna's pivotal move in 2022 from lutruwita to Naarm and "Enjoying meeting new people, feeling good about myself & being free in my sexuality, not being worried about what other people think", says the artist, "'Push Up' is a really good introduction to the range and the diversity in my music - and it was just such a fun song to make. I've always been a singer, but some people don't know that I make that kind of music. You're getting to know me more, coming and stepping closer to me. It's about being really fluid, not worrying about labels or genders or anything like that, love is free and we love who we want - being ourselves 100% is so important. My favourite lyric would probably be 'I got no problem with speaking my mind, can you keep up babe?... you could be mine'. Working with Jacob (Farah) has been an incredible experience - as two Black artists, we wanted to deliver music that has the potential to stand up against international acts, music that feels good, music for our communities and music we wanna listen to."

Miss Kaninna's art is a powerful expression of her experiences as a young Black woman in the colony, drawing from a rich cultural heritage - with a mission to bring new representation to the scene and an urgency to dismantle oppressive structures. An unrelenting voice of punk and power drawing from the paths laid before her by her Matriarchs - such as her musician & activist mother Ruth Langford who works with the Indigenous Women’s Legal Centre for women experiencing violence in the family & founded Aboriginal social enterprise Nayri Niara, and her grandmother, famed painter and activist the late Rosalind Langford, who played a vital role in starting the first Aboriginal organisation (Aboriginal Information Service) in lutruwita/Tasmania in the 70s - to pave her own, using her voice to shed light on the oppression faced by First Nations people globally; Miss Kaninna makes club-ready music with resistance at its core, underpinned by unashamed authenticity, truth, and intensity. A seasoned performer from a young age thanks to a history of growing up in a musical community & sitting side of stage touring with her mother, she was accepted into WAAPA (Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts), eventually going on to be cast as Cynthia in the national theatre tour of The Sapphires, a role that led to her permanent move to Naarm, where her solo project began to take shape as she continued to build camaraderie, community, and strong mutual respect with other artists like Barkaa, Kobie Dee, Jesswar, Tasman Keith and many more.

Originally booked for 2024's ill-fated Splendour In The Grass, Miss Kaninna recently brought her "incensed and important" (NME) live show to performances with ONEFOUR supporting their first-ever Naarm show at Festival Hall and Luminato Festival Toronto alongside names like Big Freedia, capping off a stacked festival season spanning St. Jerome's Laneway Festival (alongside names like RAYE, Stormzy, Steve Lacy and more), SXSW, Meredith Music Festival, Haydays Music & Arts Festival, Beyond the Valley, Wildlands, Sun Cycle, and many more. In her short career, she's already headlined the NAIDOC Bad Apples Showcase, played Yirramboi Festival, Heaps Gay, A Festival Called Panama, Dark Mofo, Pangaea, Party In The Paddock, MONA FOMA, The Great Escape, Treaty Day Out, and participated in the APRA AMCOS TikTok SongHubs workshop. With additional plaudits via Hobart Magazine (cover), RUSSH, The Mercury, TimeOut, Acclaim Magazine, Mediaweek, The Weekend Edition, Fashion Journal, National Indigenous Times, The Music Network, Blare, Crikey, Concrete Playground, AUD$, Happy Magazine, Tone Deaf, The AU Review, Scenestr, AMRAP, This Song Is Yours, Beers & Tears, ABC Radio National, CADA, Triple R (who she performed live for in 2023), FBi Radio (also performing at their SXSW Sydney 2023 Party), PBSFM, SYN FM, 2SER, RTRFM, 4ZZZ and many more for the ground-shaking artist, 'Push Up', 'Blak Britney' and 'Pinnacle Bitch' are taken from Miss Kaninna's as-yet-unannounced debut EP, due for release in 2024 via Soul Has No Tempo. 


CATCH MISS KANINNA LIVE

13 July - Queen's City Ball x Heaps Gay @ City Recital Hall, Eora/Sydney, Gadigal Country NSW

19 July - Spin Off Festival, Tarntanya/Adelaide, Kaurna Yerta SA

3 August - Clancestry @ QPAC, Meanjin/Brisbane, Turrbal Country QLD

7 September - Wonder Mountain, Beechworth, Dudoroa & Yorta Yorta Country VIC

21 September - The Fortitude Music Hall, Meanjin/Brisbane, Turrbal Country QLD*

27 September - Listen Out, Naarm/Melbourne, Wurundjeri Country VIC

28 September - Listen Out, Boorloo/Perth, Whadjuk Noongar Country WA

5 October - Listen Out, Meanjin/Brisbane, Turrbal Country QLD

6 October - Listen Out, Eora/Sydney, Gadigal Country QLD

*supporting Hiatus Kaiyote

 
Artists, ReleasesGavin BoydMiss KaninnaComment