Zoë Livay is making significant progress thanks to Ik Zing, her single with Snelle. The singer performed at the Concert at SEA festival for the second time this year, but this time she could truly enjoy it.
“It was fantastic. It’s bizarre to see all those people in front of me,” says the 25-year-old Livay after her performance on the beach. “It’s just starting to pick up for me, so it’s always new when you see a lot of people in the audience. I’ve also played so many times for a hundred people, where a thousand could fit.”
It was a very different experience for the Rotterdam artist than last year at Concert at SEA. “I’m glad I did that, because I overcame fear with it. I was so nervous then that I was constantly on the verge of tears. Now I have more experience and I could really enjoy playing.”
And this year she’s there with a big hit. Ik Zing, the duet with Snelle, has been in the highest regions of the Dutch charts for months. That was also audible on the beach, where everyone got up en masse and sang along when the song started. Snelle was also present.
“I’ve done a lot of shows with Snelle lately and you notice that everyone sings along, but now it was of course my show,” says Livay. The singer joked on stage that she has to win a lot of souls, because probably only a handful of people know her. “I’m used to having to work hard on stage. But with Ik Zing that is no longer necessary. That was overwhelming.”
‘We finished Ik Zing within an hour and a half’
For Ik Zing, Livay did not only work with Snelle. She initially wrote the song with Thomas Acda. “It had always been a dream to work with him. I am a big fan of Acda en de Munnik. We had a beer together and scheduled a studio session. He said: ‘We’ll start and if we haven’t made anything after an hour and a half, we’ll just stop again.’ Within an hour and a half, Ik Zing was completely finished.”
“We grabbed each other, it was quite an emotional moment.” Livay wanted a male voice on the song. Acda came up with the idea to ask Snelle. Snelle rewrote his verse and gave it a different dimension. “A day after the release we were already in the top fifty of Spotify. Then I shed a few tears.”
The next single, Huisje Aan De Zee, is now ready. Livay played it, very appropriately, live at Concert at SEA. “I was curious how it would be received, but fortunately that reaction was good,” she says.
“It’s about coming home to something or someone. It symbolizes the peace you can find with someone, whether it’s your parents or a loved one. In my case, I wrote it about my then-boyfriend.”
Huisje Aan De Zee is the first of several new singles that will be released this year. Next year, the singer hopes to release her debut album. In October she will do a club tour with shows in Groningen, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.