Able to switch on a whim between deeply personal reflections and offhanded boasts, Dounia is a singer, songwriter, and model who has come into her own since building a social media following as a teenager. She made her EP debut with Intro To (2017) and has continued to refine her understated yet assured mix of R&B and hip-hop across additional EPs, the full-length album The Scandal (2019), and dozens of stray singles, from "East Coast Hiding," her first recording, to "Lavender" (2021).

Raised in Morocco and Queens, Dounia Tazi started writing and recording in high school, around the time she was first able to explore her interest in music. She was encouraged by feedback she received for a diss track directed at a boy she had been dating. On Instagram, Dounia became known for her body positivity and promotion of social equality, and in 2017 made additional strides with music, debuting that January with the single "East Coast Hiding." She returned nine months later with Intro To, a succinct, down-to-earth EP that featured a second single, "Shyne." "Avant-Garde," simultaneously one of her most restrained and aggressive tracks, arrived in June 2018 and was subsequently featured on The Avant-Garden, her second EP. Two additional non-album singles, "How I See It" and "Everything's a Joke," rounded out Dounia's output for the year and set the table for "ROYAL," her first single of 2019. That May, she offered her third EP, Not Good for the Ego, and only two months later issued an album, The Scandal, containing a verse in Moroccan Arabic from Moroccan Doll, her rap alter ego. Prolific in 2020 with a continuous supply of singles and the EPs Popping in the Abyss and Natural Chaotic, Dounia continued into 2021 with "Lavender," one of her most pop-oriented singles. ~ Andy Kellman, Rovi