Miss Kaninna announces debut EP KANINNA + headline tour; shares fired-up single 'Dawg In Me'

 

Off the back of "electrifying" (Rolling Stone) performances at Spin Off, the 20th Anniversary NIMAs and at venues like City Recital Hall and QPAC, proud Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali woman & multi-award-winning Naarm/Melbourne-via-lutriwita/Tasmania artist MISS KANINNA (she/her - pronunciation guide here) is thrilled to announce her internationally-anticipated debut EP KANINNA (20 September), unveil details of her very first headline tour in November presented by triple j, Astral People & Soul Has No Tempo and share new single 'Dawg In Me' - a fiery cut with a fuck-around-and-find-out attitude. 'Dawg In Me' is out now via Soul Has No Tempo - stream HERE; pre-order / pre-save the KANINNA EP HERE. 
 

Tickets will go on sale on Tues 20 Aug for Miss Kaninna's debut headline tour, supported by triple j; sign up for pre-sale access HERE via misskaninna.com - all dates below.


Using her "powerful voice" (Complex) to explore freedom, sexuality and reassertion of dominance atop irresistibly tight production, the KANINNA EP will arrive ahead of Miss Kaninna's speaker appearance on BIGSOUND panel Artist vs Advocacy, and will also feature recent single 'Push Up', plus "the left-right goodnight" (triple j) of her debut 2023 singles 'Blak Britney' & 'Pinnacle Bitch', which spurred her meteoric rise with far-ranging support from Apple Radio 1, BBC Radio 6, KEXP, KCRW, triple j (who crowned her with the J Award for Unearthed Artist of the Year 2023), iHeartAustralia, ABC News Breakfast, The Guardian, Complex, VICE, Rolling Stone, Junkee, NME, NITV, Yahoo! & Music Feeds' (#1 song of 2023 out of so-called AU - 'Blak Britney'), The Music (appearing on their cover twice) and many more with a collective 2.3m streams across her string of singles; with growing support for the artist resulting in twin syncs for 'Blak Britney' and 'Pinnacle Bitch' 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". 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 News Corp national mastheads and scrutiny from conservative mouthpieces.

Partially inspired by the gutsy defiance of artists like DMX and Leikeli47, 'Dawg In Me' melds Miss Kaninna's gift for delivering super-charged main character anthems - she says it "came to [her] easily" - with influences from producer YAOB's cultural heritage to forge a red hot statement of fearless resistance, driven by Miss Kaninna's unrelenting bars, snarling bass, crisp drums and a Reggaetón-influenced beat that knows exactly where to pull back and let Miss Kaninna take centre stage. Where 'Push Up' showcased the wide-ranging artist's softer side, 'Dawg In Me' is an earth-shaking reminder of exactly who Miss Kaninna is, in case anyone forgot - she explains: "I'm so sick of people testing me. I've had a lot of confrontation with people in regards to human rights - my own human rights, basic fucking human rights. People really kind of push my buttons and I'm like, you know, pretty ruthless. So if you want to actually come away from the computer screen and come and say it to my face, let's go. My favourite part is the bridge as well - I love how fucking crazy I sound. I sound like a crazy bitch - that sounds sick."

Completing her long-awaited debut project - which originally began to take shape following Miss Kaninna's pivotal move in 2022 from lutruwita/Tasmania to Naarm/Melbourne - as she took a step back from a hectic 2023 touring schedule & festival season which saw her "explosive" (KEXP) live show win over new legions of fans internationally and in so-called-Aus, Miss Kaninna's debut EP is an undeniable showcase of the multi-award-winning “past, present and the future of music in this country” (triple j)'s jaw-dropping range. Club-ready music with resistance at its core, underpinned by unashamed authenticity, truth, and intensity; KANINNA is a powerful and vulnerable statement of arrival and expression of the artist's 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 - Miss Kaninna explains: "It took me a while to finally name the EP KANINNA. I had other names circling in my head but none of them really felt right. This being my first body of work as an artist I wanted to name it something I can be proud of and look back at in years time and still feel a connection to it. That’s when I realised it had to be my name. Since releasing music, people often ask me “what my real name is” which is so funny because my name is so unique that people must think it’s made up. As a child I was given a nickname because people either couldn’t be bothered learning how to say my name - or were just racist. A lot of the time when I introduced myself people would say “do you have an easier name I can call you” which really affected my identify and made me ashamed of my name. Now as a young adult I find empowerment in reclaiming my name and make sure people make an effort to say it right. I no longer accept people saying my name wrong or not making an effort to my face as my name hold power and deep meaning in my culture. This is why it was so important to name the EP KANINNA - it’s my name and you will know my power."

The KANINNA EP reflects the music Miss Kaninna grew up loving, from hip hop, rap, R&B and pop with touches of Amapiano, Afrobeats, Reggaetón and Middle Eastern influences thanks to a fruitful collaboration with producer YAOB (Dean Brady, KYE, Adrian Eagle), with Jerome Farah adding his own flourishes via an instrumental feature. Exploring freedom, sexuality and reassertion of dominance, each track acts as a "theme song" for a feeling captured in time, from revenge ('Dawg In Me'), love and lust ('Push Up', 'Friends') to empowerment ('Blak Britney', 'Pinnacle Bitch') and, as Miss Kaninna admits, "cheeky bullshit" ('Kush'). With the artist's staunch anti-colonial message never far away, KANINNA challenges social perceptions of Aboriginal music, inviting listeners to expand their understandings - "I believe I absolutely have the capabilities of creating powerful political music that liberates the people, but I also have the capability to create music that just makes you feel good. Not all our music has to have trauma at the heart of it - we deserve to feel good about ourselves," she shares of her "Black pop" - reclaiming full use of the word 'Black' (rather than 'Blak') to "Collectively refer to Black & Indigenous people globally rather than setting Aboriginal people apart & diluting their Blackness." Miss Kaninna adds, "Working with Jacob (Farah - aka YAOB) 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."

 Recently featured on Gomeroi / Wodi Wodi man and artist Kobie Dee's 'Lifetime' - with a co-headline show between the two also announced as part of his EP launch tour - and originally booked for 2024's ill-fated Splendour In The Grass, Miss Kaninna brought her "incensed and important" (NME) live show to performances at the 20th anniversary NIMAs, Spin Off Festival, Clancestry, Amazon Music x Blak Loud showcase, supporting ONEFOUR at their first-ever Naarm show at Festival Hall, Luminato Festival Toronto alongside the likes of Big Freedia, and more capping off a stacked 2023/2024 festival season spanning St. Jerome's Laneway Festival (alongside names like RAYE, Stormzy & Steve Lacy), SXSW, Meredith Music Festival, Beyond the Valley, Wildlands, Sun Cycle, and many more. In her short career, she's already headlined the 2023 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, & participated in the APRA AMCOS TikTok SongHubs workshop with plaudits via Apple Radio 1's The Ebro Show; Astral People who spotlit her as of their Best Music Discoveries 2023, Hobart Magazine (cover), RUSSH, 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, AMRAP, 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 with DSP highlights like making the cover of Spotify's the hybrid twice, plus key adds to EQUAL AU&NZ, Fresh Finds, R&B Connect, The Drip, The Local List, The Flavour, multiple New Music Fridays; Apple Music's Wildflower, R&B Now, Alt-R&B, The Sound, Rap Life Radio & Amazon Music's Best of 2023: Down Under, ARIA's YouTube Music mixtapes #NAIDOCWEEK – Keep the Fire Burning! & Press Play by Blak Label Music and many more for the ground-shaking artist as she continues to not just break, but remake (or reclaim) the mould.


Miss Kaninna - KANINNA EP
out 20 September via Soul Has No Tempo

 
 
 
 

UPCOMING DATES

5 September - BIGSOUND Panel: Artist vs Advocacy, 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 NSW
 18 October - ALTAR, lutruwita TAS^^^
15 November - Strawberry Fields, Yorta Yorta Country VIC
 23 November - Howler, Naarm/Melbourne, Wurundjeri Country VIC*
 29 November - Black Bear Lodge, Meanjin/Brisbane, Turrbal Country QLD*
 30 November - The Lansdowne, Eora/Sydney, Gadigal Country NSW*
*official headline tour date supported by triple j
^ speaker / panellist - non-live date
^^supporting Hiatus Kaiyote
^^co-headline w/ Kobie Dee

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