Nayana Santos

Ana Avelina Praia dos Santos da Costa, artistically named “Nayana Santos”, was born on the 9th of May in 1990. From her early years, Nayana has been fascinated by music. She would stand in front of the mirror, holding a flip flop like a microphone and sang songs of her forever idols (Suzanna Lubrano and Whitney Houston) At 15 years of age, Nayana´s older sister secretly signed her up for singing auditions at a famous Angolan singing contest... More

Ana Avelina Praia dos Santos da Costa, artistically named “Nayana Santos”, was born on the 9th of May in 1990. From her early years, Nayana has been fascinated by music. She would stand in front of the mirror, holding a flip flop like a microphone and sang songs of her forever idols (Suzanna Lubrano and Whitney Houston) At 15 years of age, Nayana´s older sister secretly signed her up for singing auditions at a famous Angolan singing contest “Estrelas ao Palco”, wher she sang “When you believe” by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey. Not only did she amaze the judges but she surprised all her family members that were unaware of her singing capacity. She went through all the staged of the contest and ended up in the 7th place. Although she did not win, music became something personal to her and she decided to focus primarily on it by trying to get signed by a music production label which did not happen due to the lack of sponsorship. In 2009 she moved to Botswana to study Public Administration. While there, she did a seris of performances at Angolan and Tswana events, as well as karaoke and even won some of those karaoke contests. At that time, as a versatile singer, she recorded with known Botswana musicians like Eugene Jackson and BK Proctor. Nayana met the CEO of Famastar Music (radio station and music production label), Dj Paulo Russo in 2010. Together they started working online and continued to create wonderful music. She obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in 2013 and went back to Angola for personal and artistic purposes. She was then part of a musical band, Banda Voga, as a background singer hence ended up working with a variety of singers to name a few: Chelsy Shantel, Don Kikas and Kelly Silva. Still in 2013, she recorded her song Mamã Africa featuring Banda Maravilha. This specific song is a Kilapanga rhythm in an Angolan ethnical language, Umbundu, that portrays the unity between African people. Consequently, in 2015, she got her first nomination in a then famous music awards show named Top Rádio Luanda . She was nominated in two categories: Female Voice Revelation and Folkloric Song of the year. Due to unforeseen circumstances, she felt obligated to put her musical career on hold for a long while. Fast forward, she finally reentered the music market in 2021 with her song entitled “Bondié”, which is a gospel song with a Zouk vibe. She chose this music genre to reopen her career as a tribute to God. Sung in Guadalupe Creole, “Bondié” was produced by her good producer friend Dj Paulo Russo, featuring famous international artists like Alex-K By (Antilles), Yasmane Santos (Cuba), Anatolli Sokolov (Russia), Mayo Bass (Angola) and Helio Cruz (USA). This song is receiving a lot of positive feedback from listeners all around the globe and getting comments like “the golden voice” and “the latest Yola Semedo”.   “Novo Retrato” is Nayana’s next song coming up being produced by Dino Ferraz, featuring the well known Angolan artist Nanutu. Nayana Santos is now stronger, more determined and with great sonority. She has experienced music classes with foreign music coaches including Raimundo Santos (America), Alfred Zumbi (Botswana), Barryl Nolan (Britain), that all acknowledge her talent and singing capacity. At the moment, Nayana is sticking to Zouk and she is the only singer at Famastar Music. Her aim is to perform at bigger international stages, sing in different languages and feature various famous artists. Less