ZEE AVI

Zee Avi (born Izyan Alirahman, also known as KokoKaina, is a Malaysian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and ukulele player. She was born in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia. She moved to Kuala Lumpur when she was 12. She studied fashion design at American InterContinental University in London. In September 2007 Avi posted a video of her first song on YouTube for one of her friends who had missed her first performance in Kuala Lumpur. The friend convinced Avi to leave the video online even after he had seen it, and soon she received positive feedback. This inspired her to put more videos on YouTube. After being featured on the main page of YouTube, she was discovered by Patrick Keeler of The Raconteurs, who passed the link to Ian Montone, the manager of The White Stripes, The Shins, The Raconteurs, and others. Montone passed her music on to Emmett Malloy, who signed her to Brushfire Records, a record company which is partly owned by Jack Johnson. Her song"No Christmas For Me" is featured on Brushfire Record’s 2008 Christmas album This Warm December: A Brushfire Holiday. Her single "Bitter Heart" was first to become available on the US iTunes store, and her full self-titled debut album was released on May 19, 2009, co-produced by Brushfire Records and Ian Montone's Monotone Records.