New Music

New For 2020

New Music: A.Girl

We're shining a spotlight on the best new Australian artists set to dominate 2020. Welcome Western Sydney contemporary R&B artist A.Girl.

Check out the rest of our New For 2020 list!

Ticketmaster New Music is your one-stop destination to discover the best emerging live acts before they explode. These are the artists we’re expecting to make waves in the live music scene, and we want you to know about them first.

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It was a huge debut year for rising Western Sydney musician Hinenui-Terangi Tairua and her musical moniker A.Girl.

Effortlessly blending the worlds of hip hop, R&B, and pop music, across just three singles A.Girl has already given us an incredible snapshot into the artist she is set to become.

Her life and experiences in Western Sydney – a hotbed of up-and-coming rap and hip-hop artists – is a thread that runs through her music, while her Aotearoa roots (her family are from Te Hapua in the north island of New Zealand) run deep. She was raised in a music-obsessed household listening to the likes of Lauryn Hill, Bob Marley, and Blackstreet, all artists that still influence her sound today.

Originally diving into music singing in a reggae band with her uncles when she was 11 years old, her first taste of live performance was opening for well-known New Zealand reggae band 1814. But it was when she swapped reggae for pop and R&B that things started falling into place for A.Girl.

Her debut single ‘2142’ landed in July and comparisons to SZA, Jhene Aiko, and Jorja Smith started flowing in. She quickly followed it up with ‘Play’, a sultry contemporary R&B groove that she wrote with her mum and sister.

Now she has kicked off 2020 with summer jam ‘All Over You’. Slinky, laid back production gives way to a synth-heavy hook, all the while A.Girl’s silky smooth vocal holds the whole thing together. What a way to launch into the New Year.

2019 saw A.Girl step into her own, making the rounds on triple j, receiving love from online tastemakers around the globe, joining Aussie hip hop honcho Briggs on his Beats 1 radio show The New Australia, playing the Sydney leg of Listen Out Festival (alongside the likes of Flume and Slowthai), and walking away from Bigsound as one of the most talked-about artists of the week.

We can’t wait to see what 2020 has in store for A.Girl, that’s why we’ve picked her as one of our New For 2020 artists to watch.

a.girl new for 2020

The Story

From the beginning

A.Girl “I started singing at the age of 10 in my family’s reggae band. I came home from school one day and said to my mum that I wanted to start singing and I swear within 24 hours she formed a reggae band that consisted of me (lead singer), my mum and all my uncles – we rehearsed day and night in a tiny little garage in Northmead rain, hail or shine. I started making my own music at 14 or 15, just writing little hooks and verses here and there – I really loved reggae but I couldn’t help but write my own stuff and liked it just a little more than singing covers.”

What you’ll hear

“I would describe my sound as a weird R&B/hip hop vibe. I think I’ve listened to an equal amount of R&B and hip hop growing up, so it just came naturally that when I started making music, it’d turn into a fusion of both. Finding this sound has been so challenging, it’s hard trying to nail a specific sound that you’re 100% happy with but once you find it it’s something you hold on to and spend ages perfecting.”

Influences & inspiration

“My musical influences are so eclectic they range from Freddy Mercury to the Weeknd, Doja Cat, Lauryn Hill, Jhené Aiko, Trippie Redd, XXXTENTACION, Drake, TLC, Tevin Campbell…and that’s just half of them. My biggest inspiration though is my Mum straight out – she’s the biggest boss I’ve ever come across.”

For the love of music

“I love EVERY SINGLE PART. I love being locked in a studio with the producer and my little sister making BANGERS. It still baffles me to this day that some days I’ll wake up, get ready to go to the studio, walk-in with no song and leave with one of the coolest songs I’ve ever written. Making music is the closest thing I have to magic.”

Kicking goals

“My biggest achievement definitely has to be performing at Listen Out Festival with my band and being surrounded by so many artists whose songs I play on a daily basis, it was freaking me out that I was sitting backstage talking to all of them like we’re all homies. The biggest highlight of 2019, can’t wait to see what 2020 brings me.”

The hard yards

“Finding myself as a person. It has been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to do because no one can really tell you how to do you. You have to figure it out alone. For a long time, I was doing things that weren’t making me very happy. Now I’m in the process of finding what actually makes me happy, what hobbies I like, I’m doing things for myself and as hard as it’s been I haven’t felt this good in a long time.”

The year ahead

“I am a one step at a time type of gal so it’s hard for me to say what lies ahead, but me and the team have got new music lined up, videos to come with them and performances throughout the year.”

When we chat in 12 months…

“I hope to have my driver’s license. I don’t even have my L’s. I know that’s bad but better late than never, also hope to be in London or America this time next year whether it be for a holiday or music I’d be happy either way, and hopefully move out of the area and find a nice little home closer to the city.”

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Essential Listening

A.Girl – All Over You

A.Girl – 2142

“This song is just so g, I know I wrote it but damn sometimes I just listen to this song and it puts me in my gangsta feels.”

A.GIRL - 2142 (official video)

A.Girl – Play

A.GIRL - Play (official video)

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Check out the rest of our New For 2020 feature artists here.

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