Hear Aiva’s Debut R&B Jazz Single ‘Gentleman’

For London-based singer-songwriter Aiva, music has always been a way of expressing happiness and sadness. “I’ve never been able to deal with life in any other way,” she says. Growing up in a household filled with music, the vocalist tells us that watching her father playing piano and mother singing along shaped her as an artist from an early age. Now, Aiva is out with her debut single in the form of the luxuriant “Gentleman.”

Ask Aiva about the new track and she says, “I wrote ‘Gentleman’ A Capella when my baby was a month old and he had just slept longer than an hour for the first time. I remember running in the living room with the verse and hook in my head, recording it on my iPhone and the whole song came to life.” Lyrically the song is in relation to meeting her child’s father more than a decade ago. Aiva says, “It’s about how safe I felt that he was such a gentleman in an environment where most guys wanted fun over soul mates.”

“Gentleman” includes jazz sounds, pop melodies, R&B and soul influences as well as Aiva’s husky vocals. The track has been produced and engineered by U.K.-based Ife Gee. “I chose this song as my first single because it is sonically the exact vibe I love,” says Aiva.

Next, a music video for “Gentleman” is in the pipeline as well as more singles at the turn of the year. In the meantime, Aiva will be gigging in and around London with her eight-piece band. She says, “I think my biggest reason for writing real lyrics and music is that I’m a firm believer in owning who you are as a person and letting that authenticity resonate with your listeners.”

Hear “Gentleman” below: