Meet rising local singer-songwriter Shareefa Aminah, also known as shazza, who tells HEY! what it’s like to juggle music with her studies at NTU

By Coen Sim

She’s sung with Canadian pop duo Crash Adams in a viral video that has been viewed over 63 million times.

She’s graced a gigantic Spotify billboard ad in New York.

She got a shoutout from British band Coldplay during their Singapore tour this year.

She is a singer-songwriter who has written, recorded and performed 14 original songs before her 23rd birthday.

She is Shareefa Aminah, stage name shazza. 

And she is an NTU communication student. 

So how did it all begin?

She got a shoutout from Singapore’s next Prime Minister, Mr Lawrence Wong, over a duet she did on his cover of Taylor Swift’s Love Story.

For the only daughter of three children – and one of “many creatives” at home – family isn’t just a source of love, but also a wealth of artistic talent and wisdom. 

Raised around an eclectic mix of music from Norah Jones to the Black Eyed Peas, Shareefa started writing songs at 11. 

Her passion grew as she experimented with songwriting and singing at gigs. She decided to pursue music professionally after graduating from polytechnic in 2022. 

“I knew I needed to give this music dream a proper shot and my parents were supportive, pushing me to take a leap of faith,” she says. 

Shareefa released Pity Party, her first single, complete with a marketing campaign at the end of her first year in NTU. 

“With the guidance of my dad, who is a creative director, and the skills I gained from my NTU communication classes and my mass communication diploma course, I created press kits, and wrote and sent out news releases. We even made an original music video featuring me and my friends for the song,” she recalls.

Living a double life

But if we pause the track for a moment – beyond the rush of her music career, Shareefa is still a communication undergraduate, working hard on assignments and rushing from lectures to tutorials. 

Joining NTU’s Wee Kim Wee School of Communication & Information after polytechnic was a “natural” choice for Shareefa, as she gets to learn about the communication industry at a deeper level. 

“But in my second year in NTU, when I returned to school after making music full-time for a year, I felt like I was living a double life,” quips Shareefa. “My friends knew me as Sha, and I wasn’t open about my career. People would sometimes stare and ask if I was shazza.”

“A few times, I had to leave classes halfway for radio interviews. I would explain why to the professor, rush off and zip back to class. That’s $60 in taxi rides each time,” she recalls.  

As her final exams approached and a big performance loomed, she started to feel the stress of juggling everything and turned to the University Counselling Centre. “Sharing about my struggles with a professional counsellor was validating. I felt better afterwards,” she reveals. 

Shareefa is on a leave of absence to focus on her music this semester and plans to resume her studies soon. She adds: “I think you shouldn’t be afraid to seek help when you need it. Always be kind to yourself.”

“For the NTU song, I was trying to convey the joys of university, as the phase of life where people step into their dreams and into their future as young adults. I wanted to capture a sense of hopefulness and excitement. The more I wrote, the more doable it became. I am really happy with how it turned out. I had a lot of fun singing it and I hope people will enjoy listening to it too,” she adds.   

Decked out in a stylish mustard yellow jacket and printed pants, Shareefa showed up for the four-location, five-hour shoot with her jingle on her phone and a beaming smile. She had only had a few hours of sleep and was fasting as it was the Islamic month of Ramadan, but no one could tell.

“The HEY! shoot was very fun and interesting,” she laughs. “It was a little nerve-racking to shoot in front of my uni peers, but everyone was very nice and some students said hi at The Hive, which was very cute and a little surprising.”

Looking back on her journey so far, Shareefa finds it fitting that her first magazine cover shoot would be for her university’s publication.

“It’s a very sweet, full-circle moment. I hope to make the school proud with my endeavours one day. I am eternally grateful to NTU for the graciousness they have shown and the space they have given me to pursue my dreams this way.”

“I took all my first-year interdisciplinary core modules here. For the core writing class, I researched into how and why people interpret written art differently. I learnt that personal experience, physical ability, such as colour blindness, and other factors affect how someone understands a piece of work. I’m more sensitive to these factors when I write my songs now.” 

“Others call this the ‘dim sum tower’ but it reminds me of the ‘Revenge of the Mummy’ ride in Universal Studios Singapore. The brick-coloured concrete drawings on the walls look like ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Sometimes I take the stairs to get to my creative writing class – it feels like I’m having fun in the theme park. When I’m on the curved balcony, I can see what’s happening in the whole building.”  

“When I first started university, this was where I’d get lunch with my friends after class, so it quickly became my landmark, a way to orientate myself when getting around NTU. If I start from the North Spine, then I know how to get to my classes in WKWSCI and to my interdisciplinary modules held at The Arc. I like the vibrancy here and the food queues move fast.” 

This story was published in the Mar-Apr 2024 issue of HEY!. To read it and other stories from this issue in print, click here.