Glastonbury Festival beckons for Nadia
A singer-songwriter from Diss has won the chance to take to the stage at this year’s Glastonbury Festival.
Nadia Brownsword, whose artist name is Nadia Kadek, beat thousands of up-and-coming musicians by getting to the final of the world-renowned Emerging Talent Competition.
The 21-year-old, who qualified after finishing second in the competition, said making it to the festival had been a dream since childhood.
“It’s been very surreal, crazy and something that I never thought would ever happen,” said Nadia, who grew up in Diss. “I am hugely excited about playing at Glastonbury.
“When I was younger, I went to the festival and was very immersed in live music and festivals. I have some very early memories of it and being in lots of mud, so this is going to be a full-circle experience for me.”
The former Diss High School pupil, who is close to graduating from a songwriting music degree at Leeds Conservatoire, said her Norfolk upbringing had played an integral part in her connection to music.
Miss Kadek added: “I owe a lot of that to my teachers at Diss High, who pushed me to pursue it as a career.
“In a place like Diss, which is not a big hotspot for music, it would have been easy for me to give up on my ambition, but my teachers were very good at pushing me to at least try to achieve my dream – they still support me now, which is really nice.”
Miss Kadek is no stranger to winning the chance to play at festivals, having beat around 500 acts to win Live at Leeds in the city’s artist submission competition last year.
Asked what she thinks judges and the public love in her music, she said: “It is hard to say when you are the one making it, especially as music is so accessible now with technology and social media.
“But something I try to hone in on is a live, raw, acoustic sound, while trying to keep songwriting at the core of my music.
“It is hard to fill a whole room with just you and a guitar, but it is something that I really believe in.
“Some of my favourite artists do that, which is so magical, and I am inspired by that and aim to achieve the same.”
On top of preparing for her Glastonbury debut, Miss Kadek is working on her first EP, which she hopes to release next year.
To find out more information and listen to some of her music, go online to Instagram and search for nadia.kadek.
