Layla Kaylif () is a British-Emirati singer-songwriter, film director, screenwriter and actress. She won the IWC Filmmaker Award at the 2015

Dubai International Film Festival The Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF, ) was the largest film festival in the Arab world, Arab region. With particular emphasis on showcasing Arab cinema, Arab, Asian cinema, Asian, and African cinema, it also helped to develop industry a ...

for her original screenplay "The Letter Writer".

Early life

Kaylif was born in

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

to an English mother and an Emirati-Arab father. After studying at the

American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a Private college, private drama school with two locations, one in New York City and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related ...

(AADA), she completed a degree in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

in the UK. After that, she spent three 3 years on her Ph.D, but did not complete it. During her studies, she researched the short stories of the Emirati writer Mohammad Al-Murr.

Career

Kaylif began her musical career in 1999, while still a student when she was signed to Edel Records (

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Avex Trax is a record label owned by Japanese entertainment conglomerate Avex Inc. The label was launched in September 1990, and was the first label by the Group. History Two years after Max Matsuura began a career distributing studio albums from othe ...

(

South East Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

) and Jive (

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

). She released her first album "Enough Rope", which featured the song "Shakespeare in Love", which she co-wrote with producer Greg Fitzgerald, who also co-wrote the title track for

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Frequently referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Princess of Pop", she has achieved recognition in both the music industry and fas ...

's "

Fever Fever or pyrexia in humans is a symptom of an anti-infection defense mechanism that appears with Human body temperature, body temperature exceeding the normal range caused by an increase in the body's temperature Human body temperature#Fever, s ...

" album. The song was inspired by the Oscar winning film "

Shakespeare in Love ''Shakespeare in Love'' is a 1998 period romantic comedy film directed by John Madden, written by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard, and produced by Harvey Weinstein. It stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Colin Firth, B ...

". She was invited by

Trudie Styler Trudie Styler (born 6 January 1954) is an English actress, director, and film producer. Early life and family Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, the daughter of Pauline and Harry Styler, a farmer and factory worker. When Styler was ...

to perform alongside

Sting Stimulator of interferon genes (STING), also known as transmembrane protein 173 (TMEM173) and MPYS/MITA/ERIS is a regulator protein that in humans is encoded by the STING1 gene. STING plays an important role in innate immunity. STING induces typ ...

and other music and film figures at the

Shakespeare's Globe Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse first built in 1599 for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays. Like the original, it is located on the south bank of the River Thames, in Southwark, Lon ...

theatre. "Shakespeare in Love" was named "Record of the Year" in

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. In 2008, she released her second album "Body of Lies". In 2012, Layla translated and recorded an Arabic version of

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

's "

Hallelujah ''Hallelujah'' (; , Modern ) is an interjection from the Hebrew language, used as an expression of gratitude to God. The term is used 24 times in the Tanakh (in the book of Psalms), twice in deuterocanonical books, and four times in the Christ ...

", receiving permission from Cohen’s publishers at the time,

Sony Music Publishing Sony Music Publishing LLC (formerly Sony/ATV Music Publishing) is an American music publisher. Responsible for publishing the largest quantity of music, with over five million songs owned or administered as of end March 2021, it is part of Sony ...

, to release it. In 2015, she won the IWC Filmmaker Award at the

for her original screenplay "The Letter Writer", a romantic

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

set in the 1960s. In 2018, she co-produced, directed and co-starred in "The Letter Writer", based on her original script. She also wrote and recorded a theme song for the film, "Let Me Count The Ways", an adaptation of

Elizabeth Barrett Browning Elizabeth Barrett Browning (née Moulton-Barrett; 6 March 1806 – 29 June 1861) was an English poet of the Victorian era, popular in Britain and the United States during her lifetime and frequently anthologised after her death. Her work receiv ...

's Sonnet 43 "

How Do I Love Thee How may refer to: * How (greeting), a word used in some misrepresentations of Native American/First Nations speech * How, an interrogative word in English grammar Art and entertainment Literature * ''How'' (book), a 2007 book by Dov Seidman ...

" from her collection "

Sonnets from the Portuguese ''Sonnets from the Portuguese'', written and published first in 1850, is a collection of 44 love sonnets written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The collection was acclaimed and popular during the poet's lifetime and it remains so today. Desp ...

". "The Letter Writer" was part of the official selection for Best Foreign Feature Fiction at the Lebanese Independent Film Festival (LIFF) in 2019. In 2020, her film was chosen as part of

Film London Film London is London's film and media agency – sustaining, promoting and developing London as a major international film-making and film cultural capital. This includes all the screen industries based in London – film, television, video, co ...

’s Breakthrough Strand for emerging

British filmmakers British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and cultur ...

. In the same year, Layla returned to music, recording her critically acclaimed album "Lovers Don't Meet", produced by an American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

artist

David Nail David Brent Nail (born May 18, 1979) is an American singer/songwriter and country music artist. In 2002, he debuted the single "Memphis" from an unreleased album for Mercury Records Nashville. Five years later, he signed with MCA Nashville, fo ...

sound engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a sound recording, recording or a Concert, live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization (audio), equalization, Dynamic range ...

, Jason Hall in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, United States. The album features a diverse line-up of musicians, including Reed Pittman, who produced Nail's EP "Bootheel 2020", and Matt "Ice" Iceman, who also collaborates with Nail. She released her first single from the album, "As I Am", with influences from a poem by

Nizar Qabbani Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani (, , ; 21 March 1923 – 30 April 1998) was a Syrian poet. He is considered to be Syria's National Poet. His poetic style combines simplicity and elegance in exploring themes of love, eroticism, religion, and Arab empowermen ...

followed by her second single, the album title track "Lovers Don’t Meet", inspired by

Rumi Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (), or simply Rumi (30 September 1207 – 17 December 1273), was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi '' faqih'' (jurist), Maturidi theologian (''mutakallim''), and Sufi mystic born during the Khwarazmian Empire ...

. Walter Price writing for the ''Global Texan Chronicles'' in his review of the "As I Am" single called the album "awe inspiring", commenting that the single, "a subtle country-rock number", was "reminiscent of

Linda Ronstadt Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is an American singer who has performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music. Ronstadt has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three A ...

, the

Carpenters Carpentry is a skilled trade and a craft in which the primary work performed is the cutting, shaping and installation of building materials during the construction of buildings, ships, timber bridges, concrete formwork, etc. Carpenters trad ...

or perhaps

Carole King Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter and musician renowned for her extensive contributions to popular music. She wrote or co-wrote 118 songs that charted on the Billboard Hot 100, ''Billbo ...

". Mark Davies called the album "less a comeback, more of a glorious rebirth". David Nobakht wrote that it "enthralls in a manner akin to

Joni Mitchell Roberta Joan Mitchell (née Anderson; born November 7, 1943) is a Canadian and American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and painter. As one of the most influential singer-songwriters to emerge from the 1960s folk music circuit, Mitch ...

's timeless

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

LP". In 2022, she became an ambassador for

Defence for Children International Defence for Children International (DCI) is an international non-governmental organisation (INGO) set up in 1979, during the International Year of the Child, to ensure on-going, practical, systematic and concerted international and national acti ...

(DCI) for Children Affected by Armed conflict and released her single "War on Children", which was also used to support DCI’s

World Children's Day Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honour of children, whose date of observance varies by country. In 1925, International Children's Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare. Sin ...

campaign. In 2022, she began development on her second feature film, a modern day adaptation of

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

's "

Antony and Cleopatra ''Antony and Cleopatra'' is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The play was first performed around 1607, by the King's Men at either the Blackfriars Theatre or the Globe Theatre. Its first appearance in print was in the First Folio published ...

". She alluded to her interest in the play, when she identified it as the inspiration of one her songs on the "Lovers Don’t Meet" album "Don’t You Know Me Yet", in an interview she gave to Americana music critic David Jarman, for ''Belles and Gals''. In this article, she also mentions that she is a 'misfit', something she has spoken about before, and admits she has faced societal challenges in the past for being a singer because of her conservative Arab roots.

Discography

Albums

* ''Enough Rope'' (1999) * ''Body of Lies'' (2008) * ''Lovers Don't Meet'' (2020)

Singles

* ''Shakespeare in Love'' (1999) * ''Apricot Time'' (1999) * ''Body of Lies'' (2008) * ''Hallelujah'' (2012) * ''As I Am'' (2020) * ''Lovers Don't Meet'' (2020) * ''War On Children'' (2022)

Filmography

References

External links

* Layla Kaylifat

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

*
Layla Kaylif
at

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaylif, Layla English people of Emirati descent Emirati women singers Emirati women film directors Living people 21st-century women singers Year of birth missing (living people) English-language singers from the United Arab Emirates Arabic-language singers of the United Arab Emirates Alumni of the University of Oxford