Maiya Sykes

Maiya Sykes is a classically trained vocalist, producer, vocal arranger and entrepreneur. She studied independently with Nina Simone and Betty Carter. After graduating from Yale University, she went on to further her musical education at The Musicians’ Institute.

Maiya has provided back-up vocals for for The Black Eyed Peas, Macy Gray, Fantasia, Joss Stone, Michael Buble, Leona Lewis and Rita Ora. She was a featured backup singer for Macy Gray in her live show for more than five years. She recently provided backgrounds and was featured in the Oscar award winning film La La Land.

As a recording artist, Maiya released a dance single with DJ Manny Lehman, “Body Rock”, recorded under the pseudonym Oceana, which reached number 1 on the Billboard Dance Charts in 2009. She began working with Postmodern Juxebox in 2014, a band popular from its videos on Youtube. Her featured videos with Postmodern Juxebox have received over 3 million views and have been mentioned in Time Magazine and the Huffington Post.

Currently, Maiya has been busy as the lead singer of The Endangered. The band’s second release, produced by legendary producer Steven Miller (Dave Mathews Band, Chaka Kahn), was released in to critical acclaim. The band’s next release is slated for October 2017. She is also working on her own projects. The first is an album of all original music and the second a big band tribute to Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley.