Princes of electronic-pop with a nu-soul bent, SAFIA were the breakout electronic live act of 2015 in Australia, and in 2016 they have shown no signs of slowing down.

Wielding the unique skill of defying genre as if it were a dark art, their 2013 debut ‘Listen To Soul, Listen to Blues’ enjoyed significant national airplay, moving on to be nominated for the J Award for Unearthed Artist of the Year as well as racking up over 400,000 Soundcloud plays as it steam-rolled into the #1 position on the iTunes Electronic Chart. Finding its way on-air at US college radio, XFM (UK), George FM (NZ) and Amazing Radio (UK), the outfit quickly started making a name for themselves both locally and abroad.

Their layered, warm production style and intricate vocal stylings of front man Benjamin Joseph won hearts instantly, taking out a position in Triple J’s hottest 100 and putting the band on the shortlist of acts bound to break out in 2014. This quickly led to them gracing main stages across Australian festivals, the likes of The Hills Are Alive, Falls Festival as well as sharing stages with Rudimental, Disclosure, and Aluna George. Another SAFIA convert, Kiwi queen bee, Lorde followed suit, tapping the band for her national Australian tour.

Their sophomore single Paranoia, Ghosts & Other Sounds hit the #1 spot on Hype Machine and another Hottest 100 entry. Their 3rd single ‘You Are The One’ heralded a national sold out Australian Tour in August 2014, before the band headed to the US for a whistlestop US debut at CMJ in New York to a resounding US acclaim. To cap off their stellar year, came a massive hit single - achieving a TOP 5 in the Australian Singles chart and double platinum sales for their collaboration with Peking Duk – ‘Take Me Over’.

2015 has been a banner year again with their highly talked about shows at SXSW, Primavera and Great Escape alongside a feature spot with Peking Duk at Coachella for front man Benjamin. The trio also backed up their success with their singles, Counting Sheep and Embracing Me. Both singles hit the #1 spot on Triple J Airplay Chart, and have established SAFIA as a force to be reckoned with. This was followed by a 23 date SOLD OUT tour across Australia, alongside with what’s been touted as the best Australian artist set of this years Splendour In The Grass to over 15,000 people.

In 2016, SAFIA’s trajectory remains steadily on the up, with over 9 million Spotify streams of their tracks plus 6 million Soundcloud plays, the Canberra-based outfit show no sign of slowing down. Starting the year with a bang, the trio scored #23 (Embracing Me) and #35 (Counting Sheep) on the Triple J Hottest 100 songs of the year and are one of the key acts on this years Groovin The Moo festival playing to over 100,000 kids around Australia.

With their debut album planned for late 2016 and eyes fixed on taking their sound to the world, 2016 looks bright for SAFIA.