Toronto’s Adelaide Hall welcomes NASAYA & MARO with support from Maddie Jay

Réunion Island native multi-instrumentalist NASAYA and Lisbon’s MARO, Berklee College Graduate and multi-hyphenate musician, are notable performers in their own right but their collaborative efforts quickly gathered die-hard fans around the world. NASAYA & MARO began their joint musical venture in 2021 with the release of “TEMPO” via Odesza’s Foreign Family Collective.

Songs that followed this release were equally memorable and original leading up to the release of their debut EP, PIRILAMPO followed by the release of a full-length album LIFELINE this year. Last week NASAYA & MARO’s tour reached Toronto. The small dance floor at the Adelaide Hall could hardly contain the excited fans spilling out on the main floor around the stage trying to catch a glimpse of the stage through the thick crowd.

The first act to hit the stage was LA’s producer, artist, and multi-instrumentalist, Maddie Jay.  During the set Jay reflected on her music career touring as a band member of many other acts, “I hoped to play all those venues for myself and here we are,” she reflected. Touring with her debut album, I Can Change Your Mind, Maddie Jay was a great match to the NASAYA & MARO headlining performance. Joined on stage by a bassist she worked her way through the record sharing the behind-the-scenes stories about individual songs. “This song is about having sex in the suburbs, which I don’t do often, and how it makes you want to buy a house and start a family,” the crowd laughed heading into “Hot Suburban”.

NASAYA & MARO’s set took the fans nearly through their entire repertoire of songs starting with “I DON’T WANNA FEEL THAT WAY”. ‘Ah… this one is speaking to my soul,” I overhear someone in the crowd.

Throughout the evening the duo shared many stories about their families, home countries, and music. “‘MIDNIGHT PURPLE’ is actually the first song they made together,” NASAYA pointed out, which we also discussed in an interview a while back. This conversation, mostly led by MARO, felt like a casual bar chat with a relaxed group of friends. Both exhausted after a long journey from Montréal to Toronto NASAYA and MARO spoke highly of the energetic Toronto reception bringing them back to life.

And then we talked about Portuguese soup.

“This song is the most depressing on the album,” MARO pointed out leading into “ALL I EVER WANTED”. Sad lyrics aside the live performance of this track was much more upbeat than anticipated. The bigger half of the evening carried on in an upbeat manner with heavy crowd participation at MARO’s request.

“Best night of this tour so far, I think” she looked at NASAYA, “I agree,” he commented. Having performed a Justin Bieber cover to a mixed reaction NASAYA & MARO walked us into the night with “TEMPO,” setting the mood for the rest of the week.

Images courtesy of NASAYA & MARO, Ninja Tune