Why do musicians insist on limiting themselves to labels? Rock guitarist, hip-hop artist, metalhead, indie darling, soul singer—surely anything beyond the simple description of “musician” often feels like an unnecessary restriction, the act of an artist painting themselves into a musical corner and inviting expectation and adherence to a sound or style.
Which is why Leyla Romanova’s remains so intriguing: her musicality and sense of adventure mean you never really know what you are going to get from her. Across several releases, she has wandered freely between pop and dance, indie and neo-classical, and even delivered ambitious electronic cyberscapes, treating genre not as a single destination but as a series of roads to be explored. As a wise man once said, “It is better to travel well than to arrive.” With “My Sun,” she strikes out on another new path, this time into the world of jazz.
The song was inspired by a childhood memory of a vocal duet in a film, and, having carried it into adulthood, Romanova set out to recreate that same sense of wonder and emotional connection. To do so, she enlisted Mishell Ivon, whose voice draws on soul, jazz, and gospel traditions, alongside Jerome Brooks, Jr., who brings the sublime richness and warmth of classic New York soul, their voices dancing deftly over spacious soulful, jazz-infused soundscapes where restraint is the name of the game but joy and infectiousness rain supreme.
The result is a joyous and uplifting piece. The two voices weave around one another with effortless grace, sometimes standing apart as distinct characters, at other times merging into a single, unified expressive force, just like love itself.
Elegant, heartfelt, and wonderfully human, it is a song of pure joy.
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