Keuthe
Keuthe | |
|---|---|
 Keuthe in 2022 | |
| Born |
Aroha Atāhua Mihi April 18, 1997 |
| Nationality | Shenewan, Theykan |
| Occupation |
|
| Years active | 2014 - present |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Labels | |
| Website | keuthe.ty |
| Signature | |
| File:KeutheSignature2.png | |
Aroha Atāhua Mihi (18 April, 1997), better known as Keuthe, is a shenewan-theykan singer, rapper, dancer, songwriter, record producer, model and actress.
Life and career
1997-2013: Early life
Aroha Atāhua Mihi was born on April 18, 1997 in Taunge, Shenewa, to Fruo Mihi, a criminal gang member, and Akenehi Ahere, a hairdresser. Both her parents are from Keumonie descent. She is the eldest of three sisters, with her younger sisters being Nyree and Pania. Growing up in Taunge, Mihi attended public primary school, where she first discovered her singing and dancing skills. Despite that, this talent wasn't nurtured by the teachers and the school, due to lack of funds for proper dancing and singing programs. She often skipped school, as her parents would often be too busy to check up on her, and would often go to busy city plazas to sing and dance for passers-by for money. Her dad would get shot and killed in 2007, when she was 10, during a gang turf war. Her mother, struggling to financially support the family, decided to move to Theyka in 2009.
The family arrived in Muriwai in the summer of 2009, where they would be assigned a council flat while her mother was looking for employment. She attended public middle school, where she was pleasantly surprised to discover that while theykan culture is more international, it wasn't significantly different from the keumonie culture. She started to visit clubs with her friends from the age of 13, sneaking in from back entrances or by distracting the security personnel. She dropped out of high school at age 16, starting work as a backup dancer for a local theater and as an assistand for a tattoo artist, while her mother opened her own hair salon.
2014-2015: Career beginnings and Muriwai's Kid
Mihi started recording music on her own laptop from age 14, but she never released any of her music. She met at the time unknown record producer Maerise Latero in 2014, when the latter got a tattoo and the shop Mihi was working at. Keuthe would start visiting Latero's home studio, and record her first finished songs, which were published on YouTube with little success. Latero would then be hired as a rotation DJ in one of the most popular dance halls in Muriwai, the Zumi Club. They would then record 17, which Latero would play at the Zumi before it's release. The song would prove to be favourite among club-goers, and (while still unreleased) would spread to many more Muriwai clubs. Some remixes and leaked versions of the song would then be released on the internet, gathering viral attention on social media. 17 would officially release as Keuthe's debut single on June 6, 2014, and would debut at number 7 on the Theykan singles chart and 35 of the Shenewan singles chart, making Keuthe one of only 19 artists to debut a song in the top 10 while underage in Theyka. The song would peak at number one 2 years later, in August 2016. The success of the single led to Keuthe releasing an EP which contained the 7 songs she published on YouTube in the last months. The EP debuted at number 91 on the Theykan albums chart.
She would then quit both her jobs, and embark on a national club tour to sustain herself while working on her debut mixtape. She would release the single Keumonie Revenge on August 15, which became her second top 40 hit. Her debut mixtape, Muriwai's Kid, was released on October 10, 2014 through independent digital distribution. The mixtape, entirely produced by Latero, debuted at place 16 on the Theykan albums chart, the third best debut for an album by an underage artist at the time. The mixtape would prove to be immeditately popular in dance halls, clubs and party venues nationwide, which allowed Mihi to continue with her nationwide clubs tour.
2016-2018: Dancehall Queen and Many Women
With the success of Muriwai's Kid, Mihi started working on her debut album VIBE, although most of the material of the 2015 and 2016 studio sessions was ultimately used for her sophomore mixtape Dancehall Queen. Anticipated by it's title track, which debuted in the top 20, the mixtape was released independently June 24, 2016 and debuted at number 6 on the Theykan charts and 10 on the Shenewan charts. It was also her first project to chart in other countries: it charted in Tilenno, Encarnação, Kitoko, Cervera and Baileneu Ma. The success of the mixtape led to her signing to 2Legend and Enduro. She then embarked in her first official tour, the Queen's Voyage Tour, which would hit 61 among the most known clubs and theaters across Theyka and Shenewa.
On January 16, 2017, Mihi was travelling in a Uber in Muriwai when her car was the target of a drive-by shooting. The driver was unharmed, while Mihi and a friend she was travelling with were transported to a hospital. Keuthe was hit by three bullets, two in her left leg and the third on right arm. Investigations revealed that the shooters were sent by the girl-group PAZ, which Keuthe dissed in various songs and had multiple phisical altercations with in the past. She made a full recovery, and subsequently released her trap inspired hit Many Women, in which she talks about the experience. The song debuted at number 1 on the Theykan and Shenewan singles chart, and charted in various other countries. The single served as the promotional single for her third mixtape, Many Women, which was released through 2Legend and Enduro December 8, 2017. The mixtape was a critical and commercial success, debuting at number 1 in Shenewa and Theyka. The mixtape also featured the singles "Pōrangi" and "19", which climbed charts worldwide and reached the top 10 in Shenewa and Theyka. The subsequent Many Women Tour would be her first headlining Avalonia tour.
2019-2021: VIBE and VIBES WORLDWIDE Tour
After the Many Women Tour, Mihi would stop posting on social media, and make very few public appearances, while she worked on her debut studio album VIBE, which would release on April 26, 2019. The album was a critical and commercial success, topping the chart in six countries and earning high placements globally, while also being regarded as one of the best albums of the year by various publications. The album was followed by two tours: the WIN FOR SHENEWA Tour, a 5-show tour around the ingonian area, the profits of which would be donated to charities fighting poverty, malnutricion and homelessness in Shenewa, and VIBES WORLDWIDE Tour, the first headlining global tour by Keuthe. Both tours met massive success, with all of the combined 48 shows going sold out. The tour ended on New Years Day 2020, with a final special show at the Olympic Park in Yivanna, Theyka. The post-tour months saw Mihi make her acting debut: she played the role of "Maua" in the popular theykan drama Awaawa for the shows 3rd season, and made various guest appearances in other shows and movies. In June, she would embark on her first worldwide cruise ship trip, which would be were the production of her sophomore studio album began. Throughout the second half of 2020 and much of 2021, Keuthe would only be seen sporadically around the world, as she would be producing her new album while travelling globally. Only in December 2021 would she begin to be aggressively featured in global fashion brand campaigns, advertisements, other artists shows, festivals, TV programs, podcasts, interviews, music videos and other material, as a promotional strategy for the release of her next album.
2022-present: Atua
Atua would be released on January 22, 2022, meeting critical acclaim and worldwide commercial success. The most commercially successfull theykan and shenewan album of the year, and the best theykan and shenewan debut in history, the album topped the charts in 8 countries and charted globally. The album was a critics favourite: at Aggregator.org, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an average score of 94, based on 41 reviews. This score places Atua as the 17th best album of all time on the website. She then announced her second headlining worldwide tour, Atua - The Pilgrimage, which would start in Kitoko on June 1, 2022 and end in Alvastadt, Alva on Junuary 22, 2023, on the first anniversary of the albums release. Following the albums release, Keuthe would began making regular public appearances, in contrast with her promotional campaigns for her previous albums. She was prominently present in fashion, TV and movies, music and on social media campaigns, further enstablishing her as one of the new pop-culture icons of the 2020s
Personal life
Sexual orientation and relationships
Mihi's sexual orientation had always been assumed as heterosexual, as in multiple songs in her early mixtapes she referenced dating and having sexual intercours with men. Despite that, in the track Secreto in her album Atua she admitted to have been a lesbian since she was 14. In later interviews Mihi admitted to hiding her sexuality because as she claimed she was not interested in sharing her sexuality publicly. She is currently in a relationship with Agranan singer Rosa.
Activism and philantropy
Ever since her early successes, Keuthe has used her platform to support causes which she considered of importance. She has regularly donated and sponsored various charities worldwide, concerning various issues such as malnourishment, homelessness, poverty, environmental protection, women's rights, rights of the LGBTQ+ community, and various others.
Notably, she founded her charity organization VIBES FOR EVERYONE in 2019. The organization, sponsored by various other celebrity, with it's main goal being increasing the quality of life in low-income urban areas worldwide, with various other side projects. The organization's poster project, VIBE GARDEN, succeded in building a garden and community center in the southern area of the Shenewan city of Taunge, a historically poor and troubled area of the town, where Keuthe herself was born. This garden includes various community support centers, shops, playgrounds, art installations, and open spaces for temporary projects and events.