Another tick on Malaika's list

Created: 02/16/2022, 07:02

She consistently follows her own path: Malaika Wainwright gave her first major classical concert when she was 10 years old, but now she likes pop music better and she also plays the guitar.

Tonight the 15-year-old presents her song "Done".

© Andrea Enderlein

From Herrsching to the big stages - like her idol Ariana Grande - that is Malaika Wainwright's big dream.

By participating in the KiKa show "Your Song" she has come a big step closer to this goal.

Tonight, pop fans can watch the premiere of their song "Done" on TV.

Herrsching

- Malaika (15) has been making music since she can remember.

She started playing the piano at the age of four.

She inherited her musical talent from her father, Terry Wainwright, who is a passionate guitar and piano player.

It quickly became clear that Malaika has great talent.

At the age of six she successfully took part in the first piano competitions in Gauting, at the age of ten she played pieces by famous composers at children's concerts and at the age of twelve she gave her first solo concert in the Louvre in Paris (we reported).

With the violinist Aricella Schäfer from Pullach, she took third place in the national competition Jugend Musiziert in the category chamber music violin/piano in 2021.

But Malaika's heart does not only beat for Mozart, Bach and Beethoven.

Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande and other pop stars have also done it to her.

In addition to the piano, she has been playing the guitar for four years, composing her own pop songs and writing her own lyrics – in English.

What started as a hobby is now a significant part of Malaika's life.

She has also had some success in the pop genre.

With her song "Runaway" she won the nationwide young talent competition of the Berliner Festspiele in 2020.

She would now like to build on this success by participating in the KiKa show "Your Song".

In "Your Song" young songwriters face a jury of well-known musicians and singers.

Anyone who convinces them moves to the songwriting camp in Ellmau in Austria, in order to work on their song together with a prominent godfather and to produce it professionally.

"I used to always watch KiKa and I've often applied to 'Your Song'," says Malaika.

The first two times she narrowly failed to get into the live broadcast, on the third attempt it worked with "Done".

The text was inspired by a good friend arguing with her boyfriend.

Malaika's appearance in front of the jury will be broadcast this Wednesday from 7:25 p.m. on KiKa, on kika.de, in the KiKa player, on zdftivi.de and in the ZDFtivi app.

In the future, Malaika would like to focus on her pop career: "I like classical music very much, but I can't imagine a career as a concert pianist.

With school, music lessons, practicing and writing songs, it sometimes gets difficult”.

She still wants to give a few classical concerts, but then concentrate fully on school, she attends the Munich International School in Buchhof - and concentrate on the pop genre.

"The big dream would be to be a successful pop singer," says Malaika.

Just like her big role model – Ariana Grande.

And shouldn't that work?

“Then I would like to become a marine biologist.

I've always found water and sea creatures super interesting!” That was the case five years ago.

At that time she gave her first major classical concert.  

Soren Maas