Last year, we featured TaniA Kyllikki as she shared a passionate exploration of love and devotion with her single, I Promise I’ll Wait For You, so when we heard that the visionary artist was back with the poignantly titled HUMAN, we were curious and couldn’t wait to immerse ourselves in her universe once more.
HUMAN opens with an electronic tanpura sound with cerebral detailing as Tania sings, “Human, that’s what we are, made up of many races, all different faces, trying to live out our lives, let’s learn to love each other, respect and understand each other…” before the philosophical artist invites us to stand up for change.
We love the production with trap elements, futuristic techno-house notions and of course, Tania’s breathtaking pop vocal comparable to icons like Mariah and Whitney. The message of living in harmony feels zeitgeist and important, delivered at a time when we are so divided in society and need it the most.
Speaking on the release, Tania confesses, “There was already supposed to be a final song. What began with a heartbreaking social-media post and an unexpected ‘Baby, we’ve gotta create one more song’ became one of the husband-and-wife team’s boldest musical experiments yet.”
The repeated refrain becomes a mantra, inviting us to look beyond race, culture, background and the labels that we use to separate ourselves. We connect with the spiritual quotient of this approach, especially when Tania sings, “Break the dysfunctional, come together and pray, God help us all, please make a way.”
There is something almost Black Mirror-adjacent about the premise, particularly in the way social media can amplify division while simultaneously connecting billions of people. We could also imagine HUMAN working beautifully within the heightened technological and philosophical worlds of The Matrix, The Creator or Cloud Atlas, while the spiritual search for interconnectedness evokes The OA and Sense8. There is also a cinematic quality that could lend itself to a Denis Villeneuve film or an elevated sci-fi drama.
The production mirrors that philosophy. Rynellton‘s pulsating electronica architecture gives the message physical momentum, whilst Tania’s extraordinary five-octave voice brings warmth, soul and humanity into the futuristic soundscape.
We also appreciate that HUMAN was never planned. The song emerged after Tania encountered hostility towards people of different races, cultures and backgrounds online, eventually transforming her emotional response into lyrics. She looked across the bedroom at Rynellton and said, “Baby, we’ve gotta create one more song and call it HUMAN.”
There is an additional layer of resilience behind the release. Despite severe ongoing health challenges and lengthy interruptions to her career, Tania continues to create from a self-made vocal booth beside her bed, adapting her entire recording process around what her body allows. We find this incredibly powerful because HUMAN becomes not only a call for collective empathy, but an embodiment of personal perseverance.
Needless to say, we are in awe of the conviction behind HUMAN and await TaniA Kyllikki‘s forthcoming FREE-SPIRITED album in 2027.