Top 55 Yuna Quotes

In San Francisco, I eat halal, which is kind of like Muslim kosher, and there’s this one Thai restaurant, and it’s right next to the ‘Great American Hall’. I’m there all the time whenever I’m in town; that’s my spot.

Sometimes I have a melody in my head; sometimes it’s just a verse. I read lines from a book or movies that I watch and grab a few quotes and start writing on paper. From there, I record a really rough version and work on the song.

When I first started in Malaysia, having a Muslim Malay girl singing and holding a guitar was new to everyone. Even Muslims there had issues with it; they found it weird.

I wasn’t trained to be in front of a camera, so there were a lot of challenges at first. But I didn’t want to be fake.

Appreciate your heart; really know how to take care of your heart.

Embrace the color of your skin and your own beauty.

I write songs about love because, above all, love is the most human thing we have together. Feelings are a part of us every day. You feel things every day, no matter where you are. So that’s what I write about.

I love my headscarf. I wear my head wrap every day with my hoop earrings.

I started singing very early. I was six or seven years old, and I was singing along to TV commercials and figuring out, ‘Oh, hey, I can sing in tune. This is really cool.’ But the songwriting thing came much much later, when I was 19 years old.

I really like the idea of modesty. By the time I got into music, I was already wearing the scarf all the time, and it’s really personal to me, my Muslim beliefs, so I decided to keep it and find a way to work around it. I don’t see it as a restriction or limitation – I can still be me and get into music and be an entertainer.

I really believed that my songs were good enough for the whole world to listen to. I had fans from America or the U.K. who would be like, ‘Oh my God, I love your music’.

Being a musician, it’s my job to be real and be true to whoever I am. Hopefully that will inspire other people. I hope it inspires people to be themselves and be comfortable in your own skin.

There’s a lot of buying power from the Middle East. Girls from Dubai want to be able to wear Asos, and you have people travelling all the way to the States just to go shopping.

I didn’t take music seriously in the beginning. It just kind of a hobby to me. It was something that I love doing for fun.

I think, from the very beginning, I always knew that I needed to get out of Malaysia and do my thing somewhere else.

I think being bi-continental is something I want to continue. Kuala Lumpur is my home, but L.A. is where I’ve been able to make the music that I want.

‘Sixth Street’ is probably a new chapter for me. All of the songs were written in my apartment where I’m most comfortable, and at that point, I understood who I was and knew what I was feeling about life.

I grew up in a town called Subang Jaya, and made a lot of friends from around Kuala Lumpur.

I think I draw my inspiration from a lot of conversations that I had with people or my friends and combine them together with my own personal experience.

The first time I heard Adam Feeney and Chester Stone Hansen’s ‘Vibez,’ it was used in Drake’s ‘0-100’ as a sample.

For ‘Chapters’, I decided to let go of my insecurities, found myself some talented R&B producers, and worked with them.

I want girls to know that equality exists in this world. You can do anything you want.

If you just work on that one thing that’s, like, important to you, that has been supportive of you, who has been loving you all this time, if you are able to see that, then that is your ‘best love’.

I just realized the best way to live your life is to just be you, as cliche as it sounds. I grew up trying to please everyone.

I’m a huge ‘SK-II’ person. I’m their Malaysian spokesperson. But I truly love their products – it’s not just something that I endorse. I always moisturize with the SK-II Essential Power Rich Cream.

I come from a jazzy, acoustic, folky background. Everything has to work with melodies; the words have to have meaning.

When I got signed to the ‘Fader’ Label, they got really excited about having me as their new artist. They were promoting my music everywhere. Pharrell was one of the producers who wanted to work with me, so I was really lucky to be one of those people who got to work with him.

I didn’t expect to have music as my main thing. I always thought I was going to be a lawyer. When I graduated, I was doing really well with my music in Malaysia. I had stable income, and I had really good momentum in the music industry, so I had to make a decision whether to stop that and continue being a lawyer.

It’s something that I do every year – every Ramadan to be exact – taking an 18-hour flight back home to Malaysia from Los Angeles. I’m born and raised in Malaysia, and Ramadan and Eid has always been my favorite time of the year.

Racism is everywhere – the older generations in Malaysia still say things like, ‘She’s darker-skinned; maybe don’t marry her,’ and it’s very judgmental. A lot of girls do try to get fairness cream to lighten their skin, and I’m against all of that.

Once in a while, I write in Malay and work on something fun that’s more for the local Malaysian market, and when that happens, it’s always something really special; it speaks volumes that I’m doing it for my fans who have been there for me since day one.

It’s like with feminism. We talk a lot about feminism meaning complete freedom, and for some people, that means, like, ‘Free the nipple!’ But there’s another end of the feminist spectrum, and that’s where people like me are.

I was truly honored to work with legendary DJ and producer DJ Premier. I still can’t believe I have a track with Premier; it really is one of the best songs I’ve written in a long time.

I was doing quite well in Malaysia… Everyone was so excited about my music, and they started accepting me as an artist.

I have people who say, ‘You should dress up like this, or you should dress more modest; you should cover up more.’ And then, at the other end of the spectrum, you have, like, ‘Why are you still wearing your scarf? You’re in America, you know.’

When I was younger I would go to the airport with my friends and drive out 2 A.M., 3 A.M. in the morning and just hang out until sunrise watching planes fly in and fly out. Just sit there and dream about how, one day, that’s going to be us in those flights. We’re gonna be one of those people with places to go.

Religion is a huge part of me; I’m a practicing Muslim. I’m pretty much open about it if people were to answer questions. At the end of the day, I’m just a normal girl. I have my own beliefs just like everyone else. I have a strong belief in something, but I also love music.

I think you can soften people’s hearts, even if they have a lot of hate. Music can do that if it’s beautiful and honest. If I can do that – soften just one person’s heart – I consider myself successful already.

Being a musician and artist can feel superficial at times – you talk about yourself every day and pose for photos for the magazines and newspapers, and it can be very tiring for your well-being.

I’ve always been singing all my life, but I started playing guitar when I was 19, and that was my final year in university, in law school. I think that happened when I started making a lot of friends who were in the independent music scene.

I came from a strong jazz/ singer-songwriter/folk influence, but in L.A., I learned how to have a balance between all these genres and R&B music and hip-hop, mixing them all together.

I’ve found just the right amount of balance in my life. I’m this pop artist in America, but I’m also Malaysian. And I’m also Muslim.

I don’t really like the idea of putting myself in any category now… I think that people are looking for music that’s real and honest and that they can relate to emotionally.

In my final year of law school, everything became real. Malaysian TV shows wanted me to perform big concerts. So, after graduating, I decided to go for it. I didn’t think I’d be a good lawyer anyway.

I feel like fashion and music relate to each other in a lot of ways. I always had to be creative: I’m a very creative person. I always liked making stuff. Apart from music, I always liked making clothes. You’re able to express yourself.

I’m a Muslim. I don’t try to hide it. I’m also a girl who loves music.

I guess music is very global.

If I get to a place early in the morning, I try to walk around by myself. I still try to find cool places to go to, like a record store in St. Louis or some restaurant in Chicago.

Whenever I write a new song, it always happens when I come back from Europe or Egypt or something like that. It’s always from travelling.

People say, ‘You should let your hair out; you shouldn’t be oppressed – you’re not in Malaysia anymore. You should show your curves and be proud of it.’ But I am proud – it’s my choice to cover up my body. I’m not oppressed – I’m free.

I kind of always struggled writing in Malay, because Malay is such a beautiful language. And it gets really hard, you know, if you want to make it into a song. You have to make it sound beautiful, use the right words.

To have a sense of style, it shows you know yourself. People like that.

‘Places to Go’ is something that I would never normally write because I would usually be worried with what people would think about me.

People pay attention to artists and celebrities, so they have the opportunity to do something great with this limelight. I, for one, have no problem with Kanye running for president, because if it’s something that he truly believes in and it can lead to greater good, why not? I’m all for that.