Love, betrayal, reconciliation. Stream Hellwana's new album and catch her at ESNS19

“Phases are life moments assembled into a mosaic. The pieces differ in taste and color, some are good, some are bad, but they are all formative,” says Hellwana about her new EP recorded in the fall with Radio Wave's support in Martin Havlen's studio Resound. On her previous album Sunbeam and on social media, Hellwana spoke openly about self-acceptance and beauty ideals. Her new tracks are filled with fateful stories and strong emotions which the young singer and composer also tried to capture in her expression and distinctive take on soul. “One track is about the love between my stepfather, who died 1.5 years ago, and my mother. Part of the track is about how some people are not as lucky to know the kind of love they had,“ she adds to one of her stories.

The EP's contributors include producers Tomáš Cyprián, aka DJ Cyper, who performs with Hellwana, as well as Ian Cratsch and Filip Zagata. The experienced Tomáš Karásek, aka Gargle&Expel, took care of mastering and the cover was designed jointly by Hellwana and Jan Kloss. Now available for streaming, the album will be officially released on vinyl and digitally on Spotify and iTunes on January 4th and available for the first time at the release party in Chapeau Rouge where the new video for the single Love Game will premiere. Thanks to her Czeching win, Hellwana will perform at the biggest European showcase festival Eurosonic in Groningen, Holland on January 18th. The festival will also feature a record number of Czech and Slovak bands thanks to its special focus on our scenes.

“2018 can be viewed as the first year to see female rappers' role shifting from supporting their male colleagues to releasing the best albums: Cardi B, Rico Nasty, City Girls, Kodie Shane or Nicki Minaj dominated the game. So the timing of Hellwana's arrival on the Czech scene is almost perfect – she is one of the first to bring urban sound, neo soul or rap into the Czech context. On her EP Phases she does so with total confidence presenting herself as an artist able to cross genre boundaries and hit the world with contemporary sound,” says Radio Wave's programmer Jiří Špičák.