Although ‘different’ is often seen as a negative description of a person – it couldn’t be further from how I intend to describe the sexy and soulful singer, Haifa Kayali. Different is largely what has characterised her life; and is what has, and will continue to mark her out from her contemporaries.
The youngest child to Palestinian parents from Jaffa, Haifa was born and raised in Chigwell, Essex; attending proper British schools where even her stunning blonde locks, fair and dewy complexion and luminous green eyes couldn’t mask her from being the only Arab. She doesn’t speak of this difference with suffering or malice, but rather as an un-troubling fact; for she is as proud and grateful to her British roots as she is to her Arab ones. Her non-traditionally Arab looks, again completely different from her elder brother and sister’s brown hair and hazel eyes - have undoubtedly helped her feel comfortable. More significant was her mother’s decision to fully immerse her children in the British way of life, keeping open lines of communication through visits to family in Amman, Jordan. Her family make-up is also quite different from the normal Arab émigré stories we are used to. Her father, Ziad, a plastic surgeon now living in Amman, and her mother, Nuha, a consultant opthomologist, moved to England over thirty years ago. Her father, now estranged from the family, later moved away, leaving her mother to raise three children whilst working fulltime. Haifa doesn’t emit the resentful vibes most single full-time-working parent children normally do. Instead, she beams with pride and gratitude, talking about how her mother, one of the youngest ever female consultants in the country, was always there to cook dinners and to take her and her siblings to dance, swimming or whatever other activity they were into. With an elder sister medicine practising and city trader brother, such drive and success is clearly a family trait, and something which inspires the best in Haifa.
Having excelled at her A-Levels, Haifa went on to study French and Spanish at university where she regularly performed freestyle at a number of nightclubs and gigs, including Tangerine at Sound Republic and Mother Funkers at Emporium, both in London, Epping Forest Country Club in Essex, and Sexy Exit at Mythology in Agia Napa, until talent-spotters from Public Demand Records ‘discovered’ her and signed her on the spot. Haifa’s decision to leave university to concentrate on singing was a relatively easy one as it had been a lifelong dream of hers. She has remained on the hard and beaten track ever since. After a year and a half working with the likes of Artful Dodger, Haifa found the general progress frustratingly slow and so made her next move – Pop Idol. A narrow miss to the TV show’s finals put Haifa back on the club scene with a couple of Dance Chart hits featuring on compilations including Sweet & Sexy (EMI), The Ministry Annual 2003 and The Ministry ‘Ibiza’ Annual 2002. Without the traditional commercial voice, performance training and pushy contacts however, Haifa’s career was developing but not progressing much… until now that is.
The Kayali best is something 25 year-old Haifa successfully put out there in her final performance on the popular reality show X-Factor, where she reached 12th place before being eliminated. Her husky, soulful voice – oftentimes compared to that of Joss Stone - along with her hip-shaking moves and dynamic personality (not to mention the hair) made her an extremely popular and rooted star on the show; with web-blogs and message boards filled by adoring fans. Simon Cowell, one of the three judges on X-factor, immediately remembered her from her previous stint on Pop Idol on which he was also a judge, made particular note of her abilities and potential throughout the programme saying she had the “whole package.” It came as a huge shock to Haifa when, after increasing popularity amongst the judges, viewers and cameramen (considering the amount of airtime she got), she was eliminated. This is where the jovial Haifa becomes a little more frustrated and serious; “I know they loved me and that they thought I had it and was ready… it’s like they’d rather waste the opportunity on somebody less able because I know that in my last performance I had everything down.”
Although being an Arab has sometimes come in the way of her career, she doesn’t put that down to her failure to get through in X-Factor. If anything, it gave her an edge in her music and dancing. But she is aware of the fact that it is primarily a TV show and that some decisions are made regardless of true talent and ability. The experience has made her wary but not bitter, because ultimately both shows gave her, as a previously largely amateur performer, the opportunity to really hone and develop her artistry, to meet and learn from other artists and, perhaps most importantly, to shine out in front of professionals like Simon Cowell, who she says “still supports me.” Something, or rather someone, else that has given her the focus to improve is her manager, Viola Billups, who is completely and utterly supportive and believing in Haifa’s talent and the success they will soon engender. As an African-American ex-songstress, Viola, known as Vie to her friends, is exactly what Haifa says she was looking for in a manager; someone who could relate to Haifa on culture, gender and experience, and who would look out for and push her as any compassionate, forceful and successful manager would. As a veteran in the business, Vie appreciates the struggle to make it in the business, but is adamant that Haifa possesses wide-ranging star qualities that will, when the moment is right, catapult her to the top. Acting as master coach and determined mother, she has pulled out the best in Haifa, including her liveliness and fluidity of both character and movement, something that has had her compared to Shakira. Haifa admits it took some time for her to release her more sultry moves and realised that it may have been a slight subconscious Arab reservation. But luckily she is also completely supported by her family, both here and in Amman, where even her aunties yell “yalla Haifa” at the TV when watching her perform. “They are my moral guides,” she says, “so as long as they are happy and supportive and I feel descent, then that’s alright.”
For the moment however, Haifa has been focused on the album; writing and singing for it in the past year. She is due to showcase in front of audiences and record company representatives soon. Ideally, they would love to produce an accompanying video, preferably shot in the desert of Jordan with a “gorgeous hunk in the background,” Vie croons. But without a record deal or a backer financing, such a venture is a dream for now, but with promising possibilities for the near future.
That’s not all… having sang in Spanish, appearing often on Spanish TV, she is eager to sing in Arabic and duet with Arab artist, and is already having ‘talks’ about working with Amr Diab, and basically masterminding her planned global rise to the top of the charts.
What I feel is most unique in Haifa, and for which she would be most envied, is not the sultry beauty of her voice but the strength, confidence and loveliness of her character. That is what gives her the desirability to make her both popularised and envied globally, and particularly by British Arabs. She is guided by the morals of her ancestry, but not restricted by them; she has navigated and found herself in the environment she was raised in whilst still nourishing her historiography; and she has developed an independent and educated character in herself whilst passionately pursuing a career in the notoriously ‘fickle’ arts. Amazingly, she has come out of that rather confusing and often-daunting web of anomalies even more determined and convinced that she has something attractively different to offer the crowds; that she can be the next best thing and that all her experience, hard work and butt-pushing from her manager has put her at her peak - ready for the next step… the big time!
