Kaien Cruz might have become a professional footballer player.
But in a dramatic turn of events the South African singer-songwriter instead ditched their boots and fully embraced music – after their sister encouraged them to record a song they’d written while at university on a football scholarship.
Love Me in the Dark – released in 2017 as a dance mix by local DJ Sketchy Bongo – was an overnight success.
“This song starts going crazy on radio and TV and everyone’s singing it,” says Cruz, who identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them.
“I was blown away because it was like the first song of my own that I had written on guitar – super innocently in my room.”
Love Me in the Dark topped the South African charts and was nominated for Song of The Year at South African Music Awards. It also caught the ear of Canadian global star Justin Bieber, who handpicked Cruz to open his sold-out Purpose Tour in 2017.
Cruz, then 18, had only performed at one show before – for about 500 people. Suddenly, they were in a packed stadium in front of 90,000 screaming concertgoers.
That experience made Cruz realise that “music is the path that I should be taking, and I should keep going”.
Cruz first picked up a guitar at the age of eight.
Now based in Los Angeles, Cruz believes that their upbringing in South Africa amid many diverse cultures, languages, food and people now allows them to weave between music genres and playing styles, such as R&B, stripped-down acoustic and Afropop.
“It really depends on whatever comes out that day or whatever mood I’m in. I think the through-line for me is music is therapy,” they said.
Cruz mostly writes about love and relationships – but they think that “most of their audience is not fully aware of my queerness” because that is “not at the forefront of the music that I make”.
Their latest single, I Lay, is Afro-Latin, upbeat and energetic. It follows on from the heartfelt Black Ice, also released this year. They are working on their first full length project, which is 12 tracks.
“I just love every single song and I feel like this is really going to give people a good understanding of who I am and what I can do musically,” Cruz says.
When Cruz is not making music, they’re still keen to kick a ball around with friends on a beach.
