Try to define 24-year-old Australian-Zimbabwean musician Tkay Maidza's songs by a single genre and you may come up at a loss for words. But then again, so does she, telling us that her music is simply “alternative of anything.”

“It's alternative pop, alternative, rap, alternative R&B,” she says from her new home in L.A. “It's left of center of anything because I'm always looking for something that's new and different and trying to make it my own.”

This week, we sat down with the prolific singer to chat about how moving around as a kid prepared her for touring, how her family's musical interests have influenced her sound, and how she's stayed creative over the last year and a half. It's all part of our guide to new music around the world—and you can find Tkay and other incredible female artists on our Spotify playlist.

Read a full transcription and find links to the artists Tkay mentioned here: https://www.cntraveler.com/story/tkay-maidza-women-who-travel-podcast

Follow Tkay: @tkaymaidza

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Musician Tkay Maidza on Carving Space for Herself in Australian Hip-Hop