Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based pop singer Kiesza makes dance-oriented music that touches upon house music, modern EDM, and R&B.

Born in Calgary, Kiesza participated in theater, ballet, and tap dancing before joining the Royal Canadian Navy at 17, where she was trained as a code breaker. At 18, Kiesza also competed in the Miss Universe Canada pageant before focusing on a music career.

Leaving the Navy, she attended Berklee College of Music in Boston on a scholarship. After graduating, she relocated to New York City and began performing her folky singer/songwriter compositions.

Eventually, Kiesza found herself drawn to dance music and began collaborating with producer Rami Samir Afuni.

In 2014, she released the deep house-infused pop banger, Hideaway EP. “Hideaway” itself topped the U.K. and Scottish singles charts upon its April release and received significant airplay in the U.S. when it was released that July.

The song’s distinctive video, now with over 20 million youtube views, was shot on the streets of Brooklyn, and showcases Kiesza’s attention-grabbing dance moves. “I wanted to recall some of the classic street dance moves of the 90s, and throw them in with some more modern moves.” The result is a stunning, but simple one-take video. Like Kiesza’s music, the video combines something old with something new to create a stylish hybrid pop moment.

A few months later, Kiesza’s full-length debut, Sound of a Woman, arrived. Inspired by epic nights out at NYC hotspots like Body & Soul and Libation, the Calgary-born 25-year-old’s debut album is packed with deep house grooves and shimmering soulful melodies. Mixing her house-influenced pop with hip-hop-tinged tracks and featuring cameos by Mick Jenkins and Joey Bada$$.

When Rami and I progressed into the deep house sound and I began singing in that style, it just flowed out of me,” Kiesza says now. “It just worked. It was an effortlessness I’d never come across before.