We recently connected with Jada Avezzu Morandi and have shared our conversation below.
Jada, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
I was born and raised in Switzerland, and I started having a big passion for music when I was very young, my mother used to tell me I learned to sing before I learned to speak. I started writing music at 11 years old after watching “Camp Rock” for the first time and learning about “songwriters”. Music was my biggest passion, and I had always wanted to go to the United States to pursue a music career, but my mother wanted me to wait until College to leave, so I did just that. I got accepted into Berklee College of Music in Boston and left and that’s where I started having lots of opportunities presented my way, such as having Kara DioGuardi as one of my mentors, being selected to play my music for several A&R’s, working on a song with David “Swagg R’Celious” Harris, and being selected to be a part of a writing camp to write a song for Kimbra.
All this happened while i was in College though, once I graduated, I was offered an internship in Atlanta at one of the best recording studios, Einnor Studios, owned by the very well-known producer Ronnie Jackson, aka LIl’ Ronnie. Thanks to him I was actually able to be a part of the writing process of R&B singer Sammie Bush, aka Sammie, who was actually an artist I used to listen to a lot back home in Switzerland.
I was in fact one of the co-writers for his entire latest album, L.A.W.
Jada, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Like I said I started doing music before I could talk, but I got into the industry by making a name for myself, by working hard, recording and writing songs day at night and sending them to the right people who then started offering me opportunities to write for artists, to write for TV and Movies. I am mainly a songwriter but I am an artist too. One of my biggest inspirations is Julia Michaels. She started her career in music as a songwriter and gradually morphed into an artist and had great success. That’s my goal, I want to build my career as a writer and slowly and gradually morph into a well-respected artist.
The music industry is known to be a cut-throat environment, so I do try not to get too wrapped up into that side, and one of my biggest goals is to be able to leave my listeners a message, I’d like to be an inspiration for girls my age and younger, girls who struggle with self-esteem and who often have a hard time comparing themselves to other women because I myself have struggled almost my whole life with that. At age 14 I developed an eating disorder and it started right when I started using social media and Instagram and because I was so young it was inevitable for me to naturally compare myself to other women and set standards that ultimately weren’t even real. So I would like to be able to be of help to girls who are going through that and having a tough time loving themselves. As a woman I am super enthusiastic about supporting other women and spreading that message too, we women need to stick together and build each other up instead of tearing us down, which unfortunately I’v seen way too often.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My parents got separated when I was 4 years old, and because of the worst judicial system in the world, the Swiss-Italian judicial system, they are still trying to get divorced, after almost 21 years. My father wasn’t really around growing up, and as a little girl I was the kind of daughter who really craved my father’s approval. That being said, my father wasn’t really the greatest of men, but ironically I am grateful to God for giving me that terrible experience growing up, it taught me a lot. I got cut off by my father as a teenager so I was forced to really learn how to stand on my own two feet at a really young age. I received a lot of “no’s” including my father’s disapproval to my desire to pursue a career in music, let’s say he would never miss a chance to remind me how unsuccessful I would be in the music industry and really loved to remind me of how I did not have the talent to pursue a career in music. Looking back, I’m really grateful to have had the childhood that I had, it wasn’t an easy one, the system I grew up in also favored men so my father was able to get away with many injustices, but again that made me the person I am today, a resilient one. I believe there are two types of people in this world, those who give up at their first struggle and those who thrive off of struggles, because each “No” motivates them to prove those who said “no” wrong.
I definitely am the most grateful towards my mother though, she has taught me a lot and has raised me to be a woman who is proud of herself and who loves herself and one thing my mother would always tell me which I always keep in mind every day is: “There’s no such thing as failure, the only time you will fail is when you choose to give up.”
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I don’t know if it’s a lesson that I had to unlearn but there is definitely one thing I did have to learn and that is: “Closed mouths don’t get fed” I was always quite shy growing up because I was scared of saying something dumb and seeming stupid so I would always really speak when I was spoken to, but when I left the country to come to the United States I quickly learned how important “Networking” is and as my mentor, Felly The Voice, once said” “Records are great, relationships are better!” And it’s true, I’ve definitely noticed how important it is to build relationships not just in the music industry but in any industry, in life even.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @zkjadeofficial
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jada-morandi/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAgyPNmkou1Ve1h-_kHE7ow