Modern Artist Profile - Mississauga's JSAL
/Photography provided by JSAL.
In conversation with Mississauga’s JSAL, winner of the 2025 Mississauga Music Emerging Talent of the Year award.
1. Congrats on earning the Emerging Talent of the Year award! How does this award impact you personally and professionally?
This award represents the voice of all cancer survivors, warriors, and anyone fighting battles the world cannot see. Music became a mission for me after my diagnosis in January 2023. For a long time, I couldn’t see a path forward. I promised myself that if I made it out alive, I would lean into my artistry to uplift others who feel silenced by their own battles. Cancer can strip away your voice, but it also taught me how powerful healing through expression can be.
Professionally, winning Emerging Talent of the Year feels like validation, not just for me, but for all of us who have been through hardship. It renews my commitment to carry this responsibility: to be what I call the voice of the phoenix. Rising up, not just for me, but for everyone who’s felt they had no ground to stand on.
Since receiving the award, I took some quiet time to reflect on where I’m heading and what legacy I want to leave behind. During my cancer treatment, I was once given a care box, and I can’t explain how much hope it brought me in that moment. I promised myself that if I ever had the strength again, I would do the same for others. That’s why I recently created the Uplift a Heart campaign, an initiative where I create and deliver care boxes, infused with my music’s message of resilience and healing, along with personal notes of hope to cancer patients, survivors, and anyone going through hardship.
Over the past month, I’ve been gently rebranding, refining my sound, and thinking about how to grow the Uplift a Heart campaign in a meaningful and authentic way. My goal is to create a sense of community, healing, and support for cancer patients, survivors, and anyone facing hardship. For me, this isn’t just career growth — it’s honoring a promise, amplifying the impact of the award, and building something that can truly make a lasting difference.
2. Who or what inspires you creatively?
My cancer journey is my number-one creative inspiration. It forced me to confront fear, vulnerability, and strength in intensely real ways. Through journaling during treatment, I processed raw emotions and discovered that my pain, my hopes, and my doubts could become art.
I’m inspired by resilience, not just my own, but that of others. My story connects with listeners who are fighting their own internal or external battles, and knowing that gives me purpose.
While my music is primarily English pop, my Middle Eastern heritage heavily influences the storytelling and percussion in my songs. Growing up, I was surrounded by Arabic melodies, maqam scales, and traditional rhythms, which inspire the way I structure melodies and layer percussion to convey emotion. These cultural elements allow me to infuse my pop songs with depth, cinematic tension, and storytelling that honors my roots while connecting to a global audience.
Finally, collaborators inspire me. Working with my producer Tyler Halkett and audio engineer Quddus Gordon has pushed me to explore my sound more deeply, to trust my instincts, and to grow not just as a singer, but as a producer.
3. What brings you peace?
Faith is a constant anchor for me, spiritual faith, but also faith in the resilience that lies within each of us. Going through cancer tested everything, and what saved me emotionally was believing deeply in a purpose beyond my immediate suffering.
Another source of peace is giving back. Through my Uplift a Heart campaign, I am channeling my music into something bigger: healing, community, and advocacy. Sharing my journey and making space for others to feel seen is a way I find rest.
And then there’s the quieter side — journaling, reflecting, being at the piano. That still feels like coming home for me.
4. Walk us through your songwriting process.
My songwriting is deeply rooted in journaling. When I was in treatment, I wrote constantly, not just to survive, but to make sense of what I was living through. My journals became more than therapy; they became lyrics.
Here’s how my process usually goes now:
Journal first. I write out what’s on my heart; fear, gratitude, healing, etc.
Melody from emotion. I sit at the piano and let that emotion guide the chords.
Turn journals into lyrics. I shape the raw writing into song structure, refining what needs to be said.
Demo in my home studio. Once I have verse, chorus, and melody, I record a rough version of vocals and piano, and I layer in basic synths, drum beats, and percussion to get a sense of the song's feel and energy.
Collaborate. Working closely with my producer, we layer instrumentation, craft atmospheric textures, and exchange ideas, refining the song together until it fully comes to life and is ready for professional recording.
This process was how “Be Invincible” was born; from journal to piano, to demo, to collaboration, to finished track , and it continues to guide my creative work today.
5. What’s one of your songs that means the most to you?
Be Invincible’ will always be deeply personal and an anchor for me. It was born during one of the darkest moments of my cancer treatment and served as the beginning of my healing journey.
Lately, though, Poison resonates with me on a very different and personal level. The song came out of a period of deep reflection after cancer, when I started examining the habits, environments, and relationships in my life that caused emotional stress and suppressed my voice. During my research, I realized toxic patterns can seriously affect physical health and may contribute to disease, including cancer. That realization was a big flag for me, highlighting the importance of addressing these issues for long-term wellbeing.
Poison is about recognizing those toxic forces and making the conscious choice to protect yourself. Choosing yourself means prioritizing your health, your peace, and your purpose over the comfort of staying in draining or harmful situations. It’s not selfish, it’s necessary. It’s saying: “I matter. My growth matters. My healing matters.” The song encourages listeners to honor their inner voice, acknowledge the toxicity around them, and have the courage to step away, even when it’s difficult.
The symbolism extends further; the red in the cover art references the chemo I received, a life-changing moment, and also represents the danger and attention that toxic environments demand. The upbeat dance rhythm of the chorus mirrors the process of liberation: acknowledging toxicity, moving through it, and reclaiming joy. For me, Poison is both a personal declaration and a guidepost for anyone learning to put themselves first, embrace their worth, and live authentically.
6. The creative journey is an ever-changing one; how has yours changed over recent years?
Before my cancer diagnosis, songwriting was deeply private. I wrote to process my feelings, but I never shared what I wrote or released anything publicly. Cancer changed that. It forced me to confront fear, fragility, and the impermanence of life. I realized that my voice, my story, could no longer stay silent. Vulnerability, once something I kept to myself, became a source of strength and marked the first rise of my own Phoenix.
Today, my creative journey is about more than self-expression, it’s about connection, impact, and healing. Hearing from fans that my music has helped them through their own struggles reminds me why I create: to turn pain into purpose and rise alongside others through shared experience.
As I embraced vulnerability and purpose, my music naturally began to reflect that growth. My sound has evolved into a blend of anthemic pop, soulful storytelling, and cinematic textures, carrying the emotional depth of my personal journey. Each song now represents a chapter of the Phoenix Saga; a story of rebirth, resilience, and illumination. I only began releasing music publicly as part of this journey, and my upcoming album, Rising Phoenix, embodies this evolution; a sonic memoir of rising from fire, emerging stronger, and embracing authentic self-expression.
7. What succinct advice do you have for artists starting their journey?
Share your story, even when it scares you. Authenticity matters more than perfection — people resonate with truth. When I began, I erased a lot of content because I was overly self-critical. Over time, I learned two key lessons:
Stay authentic — don’t try to fit what you think others want.
Don’t let praise or criticism define you — positive feedback can feel validating, but leaning on it can make you dependent on others’ opinions; negative feedback can feel discouraging, but letting it control you can stop your growth. Instead, use both as gentle guides, but remain grounded in your own voice.
Lean on your resilience. Use your art to heal first, then to connect. The journey isn’t just about making music; it’s about using your voice to uplift and empower, your own and others.
8. What’s in store for 2026?
Thank you for asking this. Putting it into words keeps me accountable.
2026 marks the first chapter of my musical journey with the release of my debut album, Rising Phoenix, which begins the Phoenix Saga; a story of transformation, resilience, and empowerment told through music. While it’s the first chapter, many more are to come, with future albums continuing the evolution of my story. As part of this release, I will also share reflections for each song; personal recordings drawn from my journals that reveal the story, emotions, and insights behind every track, allowing listeners to connect more deeply with the Phoenix Saga and follow the meaning of each chapter in my journey.
Alongside the album release, I’ll be expanding my performances with a live band and additional choreographers as part of the debut album event. This will create a fully immersive experience, connecting with audiences not just through the music, but through the emotion, energy, and storytelling behind each performance. I plan to tour the album in the summer, bringing the Phoenix Saga to stages across multiple cities. I will also begin releasing originals from the next chapter of the Phoenix Saga, with titles to be announced in 2026, giving listeners a preview of the journey ahead.
I’ll continue growing the Uplift a Heart campaign. After a successful first delivery for cancer patients at Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital Cancer Clinic, made possible through community support, I aim to expand the initiative by building a volunteer network, collaborating with cancer support organizations, and making deliveries on a quarterly basis. Eventually, I hope to reach beyond cancer to anyone experiencing hardship. You can learn more or contribute at www.jsalmusic.com/donate.
My social media strategy will focus on deeper engagement, authenticity, and storytelling, sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of my creative process, live performances, reflections, and the evolution of the Phoenix Saga. I’m also further developing my look and feel, embracing a warrior and soldier aesthetic, aligning visually with the themes of resilience, courage, and rising from fire that define my music and brand.
I will continue performing on stages that celebrate wellness, healing, and community, connecting with audiences who share in the message of resilience and hope.
2026 is about growth, connection, and purpose — sharing the first chapter of my journey while setting the stage for the many chapters still to come, each one a continuation of the Phoenix Saga, and each one a story of rising, healing, and inspiring others.
