-
I didn't take music seriously in the beginning. It just kind of a hobby to me. It was something that I love doing for fun.
Yuna -
I like that I don't have to conform to the normal women-in-music-selling-sex-appeal thing.
Yuna
-
Fame is definitely a monster: it can suck you in and spit you out and change you. The biggest challenge is to remain yourself regardless of what people say about you.
Yuna -
'Places to Go' is something that I would never normally write because I would usually be worried with what people would think about me.
Yuna -
My label understands that I am really attached to Malaysia, that I come home a lot.
Yuna -
I want girls to know that equality exists in this world. You can do anything you want.
Yuna -
I feel like fashion and music relate to each other in a lot of ways. I always had to be creative: I'm a very creative person. I always liked making stuff. Apart from music, I always liked making clothes. You're able to express yourself.
Yuna -
Lupe Fiasco is kinda cool. I like him a lot.
Yuna
-
For 'Chapters', I decided to let go of my insecurities, found myself some talented R&B producers, and worked with them.
Yuna -
I think, from the very beginning, I always knew that I needed to get out of Malaysia and do my thing somewhere else.
Yuna -
Whenever I write a new song, it always happens when I come back from Europe or Egypt or something like that. It's always from travelling.
Yuna -
I wasn't trained to be in front of a camera, so there were a lot of challenges at first. But I didn't want to be fake.
Yuna -
I come from a jazzy, acoustic, folky background. Everything has to work with melodies; the words have to have meaning.
Yuna -
When I first started in Malaysia, having a Muslim Malay girl singing and holding a guitar was new to everyone. Even Muslims there had issues with it; they found it weird.
Yuna
-
The first time I heard Adam Feeney and Chester Stone Hansen's 'Vibez,' it was used in Drake's '0-100' as a sample.
Yuna -
I write songs about love because, above all, love is the most human thing we have together. Feelings are a part of us every day. You feel things every day, no matter where you are. So that's what I write about.
Yuna -
The working environment in L.A. is really refreshing, really good. Because in Malaysia, it's a small country - you end up working with the same people that you like and that you know.
Yuna -
In Malaysia, we have a lot of divas, like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey singers. And they were all so so talented, just very talented. For example, there's this one jazz singer, her name is Sheila Majid, and I was always singing her songs.
Yuna -
I know how to wrap my turban a little better now. In the beginning, it was a little weird.
Yuna -
I think feminism is that you just have to stick it all out. I remember this one time when someone interviewed me, and I was young, and they said, 'Do you see yourself as a feminist?' And I was like, 'I don't know. I'm not really comfortable calling myself a feminist.'
Yuna
-
I love traveling. I've been doing it since I was 16.
Yuna -
I kind of always struggled writing in Malay, because Malay is such a beautiful language. And it gets really hard, you know, if you want to make it into a song. You have to make it sound beautiful, use the right words.
Yuna -
The fashion world is so interesting because it's always changing, but if you know yourself really well, despite of all the changes in the fashion trends, you know how to stay true to yourself.
Yuna -
I used to be affected by criticism thrown at me, and I would get really down. But I got to a point where I just decided to go for it, no matter what negativity is around you.
Yuna