A few years ago, Nya was studying global public health at New York University, preparing for a future with a stable career on the horizon. Yet, no matter how hard she tried to focus on it, her engrained musical instincts and ambitions would overtake her budding creative mind. She decided to take a leap of faith, dropping out to pursue her deep-rooted passion for singing and songwriting. Since then, Nya has made great strides in securing her place in the sun with an enduring full-time job as an artist. The emotional sincerity she pours into every single and EP has helped her build a substantial following that is only continuing to grow. She has also announced work in progress for her first full-length album and eagerness to take to the stage with live performances to better connect with those cherished fans. Ultimately, Nya’s star is shining brightly these days as she climbs higher up the ladder to immense fame and success.
“The Real You” marks a major defining milestone in Nya’s artistic progression. The song quickly soared to the top on the Mediabase and Billboard Adult Contemporary charts, where it reached #20 and #26 respectively. It peaked at the fourth spot on the Digital Radio Tracker Top Independent Airplay chart, remaining part of the top 10 for multiple consecutive weeks. Numbers don’t lie, and the recognition and hype are well deserved.
The single’s opening, with its nimble music box melody, gives the false pretense that discovering “The Real You” is a happy tale straight from a storybook. Suddenly, the song becomes the opposite, turning into a visceral piano ballad disentangling the memories of a bygone relationship with someone’s self-performance of who they were. After revealing their real character, it is plain to see that the person was not at all who Nya thought. She sings, “The real you had to go spoil all that we had. I don’t like the real you,” and in hindsight, it’s better for ties to be severed because it’s impossible to live up to that “distant perfection” forever.
As stated, Nya’s storybook lays open on the ground, waiting to tell the audience her recollection of uncovering her since close friends hidden nature. Shot in black and white, the video is sentimental and intimate, effectively bringing her walk down memory lane to life. The recurring time-lapse of the wilted rose symbolizes the relationship dying as time goes on. The once burning love and its spark, demonstrated with the flower on fire, has gone out. Still, the flower in color behind Nya’s vocal and lyrical delivery represents her fonder flashbacks of the guise of the person she once adored. Overall, “The Real You” shows Nya’s ongoing healing post the end of a once treasured friendship in a way that viewers can not help but feel touched by with the raw and poetic song and visual.
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