Zee Avi's globally-minded music blurs the lines between American pop/rock, jazz, folk, and Malaysian traditions. She was born as "Izyan Alirahman" on December 15, 1985, and spent the first half of her childhood in Borneo. After moving to Kuala Lumpur at age 12, she began playing guitar during her teenage years and developed an interest in fashion, the latter of which eventually took her to London. After completing her studies at the American InterContinental University, she left the UK and returned to Kuala Lumpur, where she began playing live shows and posting her performances on YouTube. Zee Avi built a large audience on the video platform, which earned her a record deal with Jack Johnson's label, Brushfire Records. Her self-titled debut was released by Brushfire in May 2009, featuring an unplugged sound that made her a star in multiple countries. The album went gold in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore, while its lead single, "Bitter Heart," charted at Number 63 on Billboard Japan Hot 100. Ghostbird followed in 2011 and brought Zee Avi more chart success, including a Number 1 peak on US Billboard Heatseekers and a Number 20 showing on US Billboard Alternative Albums. Two of the album's tracks, "Swell Window" and "Concrete Wall," also appeared in the fifth season of Gossip Girl. A children's album, Nightlight, was released in 2014. Two years later, Zee Avi's "Arena Cahaya" was named "Best Original Film Song" at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards. She then released "Who are U?" in 2019, describing the single as the first track from an upcoming album titled Ellipses.
