Awulana – Finding Freedom in Heartache

There’s a moment in every artist’s journey when the music stops being a hobby and becomes a mirror. For Awulana, that moment arrived when she was just nine years old, standing in her kitchen, repeating to her mother for what must have been the five-hundredth time: “I’m going to be a star.”

Her mother’s reply was simple, and it stuck: “How will you do that if you can’t write songs for yourself?”

It was less a challenge and more a prophecy. From that day forward, songwriting became Awulana’s language. A refuge. A way to say what couldn’t be said out loud.

“I’ve always been a musician,” she reflects. “Songwriting quickly became my safe haven. It was the only space for me to share my feelings without fear.”

That same honesty runs like a current through her debut EP, Product of Heartache, a raw, unflinching collection that charts love and loss in all their messy cycles.

The Making of Product of Heartache

The EP wasn’t crafted overnight. Its earliest track, If I’m Being Honest, was written three years ago, long before Awulana could have imagined how prophetic those words would become.

“Art imitates life,” she says with a laugh. “I found myself living through the same stories I had written about years earlier. That was my sign that it was time to release the project.”

The record moves from guitar-backed confessions to uptempo, club-ready beats, pulling listeners through an emotional spectrum that feels as unpredictable as heartbreak itself. “I always want to take my audience on a journey,” she explains. “The sound is R&B at its core, but I love drawing inspiration from other genres. It keeps me honest to the story I’m telling.”

Vulnerability as a Superpower

If there’s a thread tying Product of Heartache together, it’s vulnerability. Not just in lyrics that sting with brutal honesty, but in the way Awulana refuses to edit herself down for palatability.

Her songs don’t paint heartbreak as linear. They linger on the contradictions, the anger, the yearning, the relapse, the hard-won clarity that comes only after you’ve lived through it twice.

“I think it’s easy to blame the other person for the ways they hurt you,” she says. “But I also make the effort to reflect on the part I played, the patterns I let repeat. Everything in life is a lesson, and sometimes the only way to get through it is to crash out and let yourself feel everything.”

Collaboration and Community

Though the EP is deeply personal, it isn’t insular. Dancing in Circles features a verse from fellow artist TAALiB, recorded during Awulana’s first-ever studio session. Producers like KAsurlaprod and Pdubbcookin helped shape the sonic backbone, while engineer Mike Di Biasio added the finishing polish.

“Everyone involved shared the same passion,” she says. “That’s what made collaboration so natural, it never felt like anyone was trying to change the story I was telling.”

Her visual collaborator, director Andrei (DREi) Paun, also played a vital role. Together, they curated imagery that captured the emotional weight of the songs without diluting their intimacy.

Beyond the Music

For Awulana, the stakes are bigger than streaming numbers or chart placements. As a Black woman with a physical disability, her presence in the industry is itself a statement: that authenticity, ambition, and artistry can’t be boxed in.

“I hope my music cultivates a space for the unsaid things to be shouted out loud,” she says. “I want people to feel seen, or at least less alone, when they hear my songs. And I hope my journey shows that everybody deserves to chase what they love.”

What Comes Next

Awulana’s story is still being written. While there are no tours or shows on the calendar yet, she’s sharpening her live performance skills and building a catalogue she plans to take to stages soon.

“This is just the beginning,” she says firmly. “I refuse to be stagnant. Wherever life takes me, my music will always reflect my authenticity. Vulnerability isn’t something I owe anyone else, but I do owe it to myself.”

Product of Heartache may be the first chapter in Awulana’s career, but it already reads like the introduction of an artist destined to redefine what honesty sounds like in modern R&B.