Gramarye
2024



Tahliah Simumba (b. 1998), also known as TAAHLIAH, is a Scottish artist and composer based in London. Working across sound, painting, performance, and installation, her practice creates emotionally charged worlds that explore the relationship between embodiment, perception, and the social conditions through which identities are experienced and understood. Simumba’s approach is grounded in a commitment to trans-led and Black-led cultural production.

Her critically acclaimed debut album Gramarye was nominated for Best Independent Album at the AIM Independent Music Awards and shortlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year Award in 2025. Her debut EP Angelica received Best Independent EP at the AIM Independent Music Awards in 2022, establishing her as a distinctive voice within contemporary electronic and pop music. In 2022, she was named BBC Radio 1 Dance Artist of the Year, and in 2024 was nominated for Best Breakthrough Producer at the DJ Mag Best of British Awards.

Selected presentations and performances include States of Love and Collapse with the Serpentine Gallery (2026); heavenrise (live) at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (2024); TAAHLIAH with the London Contemporary Orchestra at the Southbank Centre (2022); alongside appearances at the Barbican Centre, Sónar, Glastonbury, and Berghain, among others. Her interdisciplinary works have also been exhibited at the V&A and the National Library of Scotland.

Her collaborations have spanned the worlds of contemporary music, orchestration, and pop culture, including projects with London Contemporary Orchestra, Blood Orange, Purity Ring, English Teacher, Lyra Pramuk, and Loraine James. She has previously guest-presented on BBC Radio 6 Music and hosts her own radio show Fe’rever Forever on foundation.fm.

Alongside her artistic practice, Simumba has cultivated a parallel path in advocacy, programming, and curation. She has held roles at the Scottish Queer International Film Festival and Africa in Motion Film Festival, and currently works at the British Film Institute, contributing to institutional approaches to inclusion and accessibility.









Education

Glasgow School of Art
BA (Hons) Painting & Printmaking
2021

Universität der Künste Berlin
Performance & Sound
2019





Solo Shows

A star that burns forever is a star that burns in me
Glasgow International
Glasgow, Scotland
2026






Group Shows

move/003
180 The Strand 
London, England
2024

Passions 
National Library of Scotland 
Edinburgh, Scotland
2022

Tay Late: And the Beat Goes On 
V&A 
Dundee, Scotland
2021





Representation

untitled (recs) 
primary talent (uk and eu)
united talent (usa)