SPOTLIGHT FEATURE
TARIAH:
A RISING ARTIST BEYOND HER
When it comes to singing, some artists have the natural born talent to sing, and others have the
talent of relentless hard-work. When you have a combination of both, you get an artist with star
potential: meet adult contemporary artist/singer/songwriter Tariah, based in Zurich, Switzerland,
who has been working on her debut album for over a year, and has already released 2 singles. The
name “Tariah” means lucky, blessed, and happy.
Born Tamara Balsamo in a family of 3 girls, Tariah grew up in a “musical” environment. Her older
sister played the Saxophone, her younger sister the piano, and her mother the clarinet. She mastered
the violin as an instrument, and gave concerts at the conservatory in Zurich as a teenager. Her
classical background in music certainly helped her towards becoming the artist that she is today.
From the minute she could talk, Tariah started to sing. At 12 years of age, she traveled
to the south-American part of her family to attend a wedding in Venezuela. She gave
her first “concert” in front of a cheering crowd. From then on, she knew that singing
would play a role in her life. After years of singing during her teenage years, she decided
to take vocal lessons for about 1 year, to add some technique and grow her vocal range.
In 2013, Tariah began recording in the studio professionally. It all started with a special project she was
asked to participate in: the 150-year anniversary concert of SwissRe, the company she spent 10 years
working for. For this special event, she not only recorded songs for the official anniversary compilation
CD, but she also performed them live, on two occasions in front of 3000 people at the Anniversary Event
at the Dolder Grand Hotel in Zurich, and once more during a corporate dinner for the 300 members of
the company’s Top Management, at Aura, one of Zurich’s finest venues. Through this experience, she
also met a producer named Robin Halley, who invited her to begin record songs in a professional studio.
The result of this collaboration was amazing. Not only did Tariah develop her voice and style
considerably, by recording and creating songs two to 3 times a week, but the music she created
gave her a greater goal and purpose: “I would like to bring positive change through my music,
because I realized that my voice is an instrument I can use to help and inspire other people who
may go through difficult times. I want to give people something to hope for, something to cheer
about, something to stay positive”, says the 24-year old Tariah, who is ahead of her age in maturity.
“I know that many singers my age look up to Beyoncé, Rihanna or Alicia Keys, or want to make party/
club music. I love those artists too, and they inspire me a lot as well, but my main goal when it comes to
me as an artist, is not to be the next Beyoncé, my goal is to be the first Tariah: I want to make music in a way which people have never heard before, I think the world is ready for
authenticity and something different, organic, and refreshing. It means more work, more practice and more dedication, but I believe that talent is nothing without hard work.
Bearing this in mind, over the past 18 months, she’s been working on a full-length LP, and is almost done with the 12-song strong project. “The album is almost
ready, I’m really looking forward to the release, we are finishing up the last songs. I am a bit nervous, because I really hope that it will resonate with people and that
they will appreciate the music that I’ve been working on. It’s been over a year since I started working on this project with Robin Halley and Swissivory. This will
be my debut album, which makes it a very exciting time for me”. The first two songs are already published. The first one, called “Wine up” features Rapper C-Tru
from California and was aired on various television