Amira Unplugged’s journey from TikTok to a national AT&T campaign
Meet the rising star with a genre-bending sound and a knack for community building
Amira Unplugged is impossible to box into one category. Her eclectic, genre-bending style pulls from a variety of influences including country, rock and R&B among others. Her intersectionality as a hearing-impaired African American Muslim woman puts her in a unique position as a role model and advocate for many communities at once, a task she takes immense pride in fulfilling. “I think that ultimately I feel a lot of weight of responsibility when I’m writing, when I’m planning my costumes, when I’m working on marketing, all of these different things because I have a lot of people to honor when I’m making music,” Amira says.
Last year, Amira’s cover of Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” was featured in AT&T’s Sound of Silence campaign. The ad highlighted the 5G helmets the tech company built for the Gallaudet University football team in an effort to level the playing field for their deaf and hard of hearing student athletes. In a few short years, Amira’s gone from uploading clips of herself singing to a modest following on YouTube, to having her music featured in national brand campaigns.
Originally, music wasn’t even in her plans. Amira was strongly considering law school. It wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that she decided to withdraw her application and focus on music. That’s when she began uploading clips to Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, singing and using ASL to connect with viewers who are hard of hearing. After a massive, positive online outpouring in response to her videos, Amira landed a spot on MTV’s Becoming a Popstar. Voted a fan-favorite and first runner-up in the competition, she earned a spot at Pepsi Music Lab, “an annual academy that provides up-and-coming artists with performance opportunities, industry expert coaching and mentorship, brand-building workshops, professional content capture, and radio amplification,” according to Pepsi. It was during this workshop that she emerged onto UnitedMasters’ radar and eventually became an artist partner. We recently sat down with Amira to discuss her journey as an independent artist, the importance of representation, and how she landed a national brand campaign.
Q: What made you decide to partner with UnitedMasters as opposed to going the major label route?
A: I was really excited about the Pepsi Music Lab opportunity that came up in 2022. I was in the class of 2022-2023 after I competed on a show called “Becoming a Popstar” with MTV. That was the partnership: Pepsi and UnitedMasters. I was a new artist at the time. I didn’t have anything out so this was my first time dealing with distribution, releases, all of it. I’m so happy that it was with UnitedMasters first because I can’t imagine where I would be now, honestly, without the partnerships that we’ve had so far.
Q: How has the partnership been working so far? What was your journey like as an independent artist before partnering with UM vs. since partnering with UM?
A: I think that I’m in a unique situation where my artist career has started with UnitedMasters. Before, I was writing my music and working on trying to get it out there, but I didn’t really know how to navigate it per se. I was looking at things like okay there’s DistroKid, there’s CD Baby. I can just go through these and call it a day. But by being a part of the Pepsi Music Lab and having my first release be through UnitedMasters, I got a crash course on how to successfully release something and also how to market it to brands, which I didn’t even know was a possibility with my first song. Every song that I’ve had essentially has had some sort of placement because of the team behind the scenes, not to mention the commercial work, so I’ve been extremely grateful for that.
Q: How did your cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” end up in an AT&T commercial?
A: It was actually UnitedMasters who reached out to me. Funnily enough, that song is one of my all-time favorites because it’s my grandmother’s favorite song and literally the week before, I was talking to my sister about doing a remix of it. Then I got a call from Zach Slater [Senior Manager, Artist & Brand Partnerships at UnitedMasters] saying that there was a partnership opportunity with AT&T and Gallaudet University to help other hard of hearing people, hard of hearing football players in particular, through the Sound of Silence campaign. They wanted to give me the first shot at voicing it. It happened so organically. I ended up being a part of the campaign from start to finish, instead of just the music behind it and that’s it.
Q: How has that sync opportunity impacted your career? Since the commercial, have you noticed an uptick in streams, fan engagement, bookings etc.?
A: There was definitely on uptick in streams after that campaign. The impact on the community was the most important thing to me. I got flooded with DM’s when that commercial aired from all kinds of folks, but particularly from the hard of hearing community and from the Muslim community. People being like “This is representation on the world stage!” We don’t get that, especially with major brands. It was just everything I’ve ever wanted, which is to build community and to push us all forward. There have been other people who have reached out who have asked do I have more work that I can consider for sync? It’s also given me leverage to start working on my own identity as a musician.
Q: What advice would you give to artists trying to figure out whether to stay independent or sign with a major label?
A: I think always start as long as you can as an independent artist. There are always viral moments that cause labels to wanna come snap you up. They come with the pretty contract and all the things, but you have no leverage. You have nowhere to go from there. It’s very risky as opposed to being an independent artist with backing. UnitedMasters almost feels like a label but it’s not. You still get to maintain your independence, which is great. When you go that route, you get to see what you like and what you don’t like in deals and how you like to deal with brands and build partnerships. You get to learn the ropes yourself before even considering a major label.
Q: How would you describe your sound to someone who’s never heard your music before?
A: I describe myself as a genre-bending artist because I pull from everywhere. I’m still newer on the scene. My first release was early 2023. If you follow my journey and if you go through the music that I’m releasing next and all the way up, you’ll see all of the influences from my childhood. All of these different genre-bending moments that are meant to both come from my childhood and group people together who maybe wouldn’t have listened to the same thing before.
Q: As a hearing-impaired, African American, Muslim woman, you’re someone who belongs to many communities at once. How does your intersectionality influence your music?
A: That’s a great question. I think that ultimately I feel a lot of weight of responsibility when I’m writing, when I’m planning my costumes, when I’m working on marketing, all of these different things because I have a lot of people to honor when I’m making music. Ultimately, it comes from me. It comes from my experience and how these things have overlapped. But I need to make sure that when hijabis see me, I’m coming correct. I need to make sure that when I produce things, there is enough texture and enough bounce to where people who are hard of hearing like me can still experience the song in some way. I want to infuse some flavor and some vibes in there that the black community feels connected to, whether I’m doing country or rock or R&B. So I try to stay true to myself while honoring the people that made me me.
Q: How important is community-building and bringing different audiences together for you?
A: Oh it’s so important. I can’t overstate that. I always say it’s not my fanbase, it’s my community. When I share wins it’s for us and I don’t say that in a fake branding sort of way. I say that like this is for us! When I got the AT&T contract, when I was on the show, the fan favorite votes, everything was like look at us rising. From a success standpoint, I don’t think that I could be anywhere close to where I am right now without people feeling involved in, not just the music, but in the overall outcome.
Q: You’re someone who uses TikTok to speak directly to your fans who are hard of hearing. How important is that platform for artists who are trying to grow a fanbase?
A: You have to have a TikTok. I’m very scared of this ban that’s on the floor right now. TikTok has been transformational for me. I appreciate other platforms. I started on Instagram and YouTube and I appreciate where they were able to take me. They took me to American Idol, but once that footage wasn’t aired, I started my TikTok in 2021 just to be like no one can dictate my story, I’m just gonna share my singing here. That was the catalyst for everything that has happened. I feel that I owe a great deal of my career to TikTok, and to the fans, and to the community that has been there this entire time.
Q: What message do you have for young people who may be hard of hearing and want to pursue music, but they’re hesitant to start?
A: I would say you have to find your rhythm. You have to find what you want to contribute to the music space and stick to it. I would also say one of the challenges for me starting out was definitely recording. It’s still something I work on. Should I take the headphones off and feel it out in my left ear? Should I have everything mixed in mono so I can see what it actually sounds like? But it’s your journey and what makes your music beautiful is how it came to be. So don’t be discouraged by the fact that maybe you don’t record the same way or think about it the same way. That just means you’re contributing something valuable.
Q: Are there any other brands that you would like to collaborate with?
A: Definitely! I had a really good experience with AT&T. It’s hard to say right off the bat. I definitely would like to work with brands that align with my identity and what I like to do. I don’t really…I like stepping out of my comfort zone, but if I’m doing an ad or my music is being placed somewhere, I want it to be somewhere where my folks don’t feel like I’m just doing it for a check. It’s also aligned with who I am, like an eyewear brand like GlassesLit or earrings. I wear red lipstick every single day, maybe Sephora. [laughs] Those sorts of things.
Listen to “Sound of Silence” here and license from Amira Unplugged to soundtrack your next project.