About
Liya Shapiro is a London-based singer, songwriter and storyteller exploring the depths of love, identity and emotional fragility through her music. Moving between alternative rock, dream pop and post-punk with ease, her sound is immersive and cinematic – a reflection of a post-genre approach that favours honesty over convention. At once delicate and defiant, Liya’s songs linger in the space between yearning and self-reclamation, inviting listeners into a world shaped by longing, loneliness and the search for meaning.
Her music speaks to those who’ve never been in a relationship and wonder if something’s wrong with them, to those navigating the weight of mental illness, addiction and emotional hunger. But while her subject matter is often dark, there’s a current of hope that runs through it, a quiet strength that grows with each release.
Liya’s musical journey began with Mirror, a soulful reflection on vulnerability and first heartbreak. But it was her single The Thing that marked her arrival as a distinct voice – a slow-burning descent into emotional confusion, fusing shadowy synths and dissonant guitars with poetic ambiguity. Rose Garden, her third single, introduced a more romantic tone, drawing on dream pop textures and nostalgic lyricism to explore time, memory and fleeting youth.
Her latest release, Burning Bridges, pushes her artistry into darker, more chaotic territory and marks the beginning of a bold new chapter in her creative evolution – one that will ultimately culminate in her debut EP, now in the works. A visceral exploration of self-destruction and survival, it begins as a delicate piano ballad before fracturing into explosive, guitar-driven rock. The track captures the raw beauty and painful honesty of emotional collapse, alternating between whispered vulnerability and fierce sonic ruptures.
Her latest single, Hold Me Tight, reveals a more confident and sensual side of Shapiro’s artistry while remaining tethered to longing. A groovy, guitar-driven pop-rock anthem, it transforms verses written years ago in the wake of unrequited love into something newly self-aware and hopeful. The track pairs confessional intimacy with sultry swagger, moving between vulnerability and assertion as it turns old wounds into momentum. It marks another striking step in her evolution.
Liya’s songwriting is deeply personal yet invites projection. Her lyrics are intimate but never didactic, allowing listeners to find their own reflections in her words. There’s a cinematic quality to everything she creates – each track feels like a still from a larger film, each performance like a scene from a story still unfolding. Through her music, Liya builds a world that’s atmospheric, emotionally charged and unmistakably her own. She is not afraid to be vulnerable, not afraid to be strange, not afraid to hurt, and in that, she offers something rare. Liya creates songs that feel less like products and more like portals: haunting, immersive and achingly human.
