Meet Annell Moya: The Singer-Songwriter Whose Uplifting Music Will Give You Hope

Annell Moya is constantly inspired by the world around her.

Despite wrestling with discomfort, Annell has the kind of grounded, poetic radiance that makes you feel both brighter and calmer, and that you want to sit with all day. “Definitely [writing is] a processing mechanism,” she continues. "I think it's the Lord unraveling a lot of stuff, and I'm grateful for it because then obviously music is coming out and I'm also learning a lot."

The singer-songwriter, who moved from South Africa to the States in 2019, fell in love with music, and storytelling, at a young age.

"I always loved music as a child, and I knew that I would be doing something of that sort," she says. "And I've always loved movies. Like, my family is such a movie family, and I love movie scores and music supervisors, so I knew that would be in my forté."

Movies continue to inspire her songwriting, and the emotion she pours into each song. "If Beale Street Could Talk...It's a heavy movie, has a little bit of a love story, but ultimately it's really heavy. But the thing that that drew me in was the music itself," she says. Other films like Past Lives, singer-songwriters like Arum Rae and Damien Rice, and even conversations with people around her make their way into her writing process. But while the emotion and message remain consistent, she admits her sound is more dynamic.

"[There's] no consistent sound," she says. "I feel like that will be definitely different as years go by, 'cause my inspirations are so wide, from CeCe Winans to Lincoln Park to [Sia’s Some People Have Real Problems] to Alicia Keys. So there's this big array of gospel, R&B, a little bit of pop. I think it'll just continue to shift."

And she's always loved music.

After a high school audition for The Little Mermaid (in which she scored the lead role), Moya realized she wanted to pursue music as a career. "In college, I took a random class called songwriting — I keep saying random. It was purposeful," she says. "I've always turned my poems into songs when I was a kid, and played the guitar, so it was always a side thing. And when I took that class, it just became much more real. And that's where my first single came from, 'Heartbreak before Love,' at the end of the semester. And it was just so freeing in a way that musical theatre was also freeing."

"[Theatre is] still amazing to me, so I'm hoping that that will grow, but right now the songwriting is growing a lot more than my musical theater career, and it'll probably shift and change as time goes," Moya says.

While she's shifted her focus to songwriting, she still gets to live in the world of theatre as a storyteller in The Story of God, and as a teacher. "It definitely humbles you," she says of working with kids in the arts. "They influenced me to get out of my head a lot...When I give them the freedom, and they ask me, 'Hey, should I do it this way or should I do it that way?' And I'm like, 'No, you do it in the way that you think you should do it.' They'll think a little bit and just go for it, even if they're scared, and that shines so much light."

That fearlessness has inspired Annell in her own work — specifically in how she approaches crafting a song. "I used to have so many questions," she says. "'Should I do verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse?' you know, that typical structure? And what if [a song] doesn't fit into that? Musically, or as an actor, as a Black woman, should I be looking at this or should I be looking at this? There's a lot of should's or highly suggestive things in our industry as artists. But with teaching, teaching kids specifically, they've really pushed that boundary line away so that I can just be me. Because they just encourage me to be more free."

But as much as the kids have inspired Moya, there's no denying her impact on them as well. "The parents are extremely grateful because they know that their kid is talented and I know that their kid is talented too," she shares. "I'm really honored for them to look at me that way because I'm just sharing my experience to kids who actually, really love it, and they put the effort in and they're really talented...I'm like, 'Oh, okay, I can't muck around because you guys are actively really good.' So, yeah, they are amazing and they take it very seriously, which is good."

Music keeps Annell Moya grounded.

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Aside from a brief relocation during COVID, Moya has been living in New York City since 2019, but she sensed a shift in herself when she got plugged into her local faith and artists community in 2022. She found even more singing and songwriting opportunities with Creative.NYC — including her latest single "In New York As It Is In Heaven," which dropped on October 17.

"I love songwriting and it feels like I always — I need to," she says. "Now it's how God communicates to me."

Her songs continue to resonate with listeners (my personal favorite this year has been "Esona") and the tiniest peek at her Instagram proves it. The comments constantly pour out love, from "Always a fan, will always be a fan, can't wait" to "New anthem— let’s go @annellmoya ❤️!!!!!!!" — and a lot of overall screaming, emojis, and joy.

While her songs are rooted in her Christian faith, Annell hopes listeners from all walks of life will resonate with the universal themes. "All I can say is thank you," she says of the response to her music. "Writing definitely feels like I'm actively downloading lyrics. And sometimes it'll just come in one go, where I'm like, 'Hm, I should grab my guitar. I have a feeling.' And I grabbed the guitar and these chords...just literally land on my fingers and 'Oh I think I should say these lines,' or 'Oh what fits here? Oh thank you.' It feels like I'm receiving. So when I say, 'Oh I wrote these songs,' I know that I didn't write them by myself. And when people have those big experiences or emotional reactions, I feel really grateful that I'm a part of that."

And you can see her in concert soon!

And you have a chance to hear Moya's music IRL thanks to a fundraising concert on November 6. "This fundraising concert is primarily for my O-1 visa," she shares. "I feel very called to stay in New York, and basically my New York family, Sherri McCready, she urged me to not do it alone, to not pay for all of this alone, to do a solo show by myself, but to have my team rally with me. So, this is my team rallying with me."

"The whole setlist will be my journey in New York, the good, the messy, the in between," she continues. Because the journey is just beginning — and thanks to Annell Moya's music, it feels more hopeful than ever.