Coming over after her BBC Radio 2 Cheltenham Jazz appearance on the Sunday 5th.

Welsh speaker with Bajan heritage, 23-year-old Kizzy Crawford’s solo career began just a few years ago and, in that time, Kizzy has developed an increasing sophistication to her song writing and performance, which is complimented by her soulful voice that boasts both range and charisma.

Her ambition as a young Welsh Black artist is to make her mark by fusing bilingual soul-folk jazz and she’s already getting recognition for her work with airplay on BBC Radio 1, BBC 6Music, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru as well as live TV performances on S4C, Children in Need for BBC 1 and the 6 Nations advert campaign.

In 2014, Kizzy signed to publishing company BDi Music and Kizzy was later selected as a BBC Horizons12 Artist which included the opportunity to perform a live session at BBC Maida Vale. Kizzy was also a featured artist with Gwilym Simcock for a BBC Radio 4 music programme and she was invited to perform on The Verbs ‘Young Talent’ programme for BBC Radio 3.

Since then, Kizzy has played at many venues and festivals including the National Assembly for Wales during WOMEX, Glastonbury, London Jazz Festival, Cheltenham Jazz, Cambridge Folk Festival, Celtic Connections, Hay Festival, Festival No 6, Dinefwr Festival, the Plaid Cymru Conference, Blissfields, Wakestock, Abergavenny Food Festival (where she performed her single Golden Brown live on BBC Radio 4) and the Prince Edward Island Festival, Canada. Kizzy has played as support artist for Gruff Rhys, Newton Faulkner, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and has performed alongside Cerys Matthews at the House of Commons, Westminster. Kizzy also performed as guest artist for BBC National Orchestra of Wales at St David’s Hall & Brangwyn Hall.

Five of Kizzy’s songs were chosen as set works for the WJEC 2016 A Level Music syllabus, she sat in the contemporary music section alongside Gruff Rhys, The Manics and the Super Furry Animals. Consequently, she was invited to appear on Woman’s Hour for BBC Radio 4, where they discussed her achievement with the WJEC and asked her to perform one of the songs live. Kizzy also co-wrote music with jazz pianist & composer Gwilym Simcock in 2016, for the collaborative project ‘Birdsong – Can Yr Adar’ which toured throughout Wales and at London Jazz Festival and again in Spring 2018, to tie in with the release of the CD release. The music & lyrics of ‘Birdsong – Can Yr Adar’, are based on & inspired by the Celtic Rainforest of Carngafallt and was developed in partnership with Sinfonia Cymru, RSPB Cymru & Arts Council of Wales. Kizzy played main stage at the Acoustic Festival of Britain and the No6 festival in North Wales.

Kizzy recently signed to Freestyle Records (home to Omar & Courtney Pine) and released the single Progression which was chosen as a ‘New to BBC Radio 2’ track by Jo Whiley and was played daily on her BBC Radio 2 drive time show with Simon Mayo. Kizzy is looking forward to releasing her debut album via Freestyle in 2019.
Kizzy has just been announced as one of the headline acts at this years bbc radio2 Cheltenham Jazz Festival.