Salem Ilese
23-year-old pop singer/songwriter Salem Ilese has been preparing for this moment her entire life. Born and raised outside San Francisco, she has been doing music for as long as she can remember. Placed in music lessons from an early age, she attributes her musicality to legendary writer Bonnie Hayes, her first songwriting teacher. Credited for writing songs for Cher, Bonnie Raitt, David Crosby, Bette Midler and more, Hayes immediately saw then-12-year-old Salem’s gift for storytelling; “she took me under her wing. I probably wouldn’t be here without her.” When Hayes moved to Boston to head Berklee College of Music’s songwriting department, Salem knew she had to follow and enrolled. After a couple years of intense learning, Salem made the decision to move to Los Angeles to kickstart the next chapter of her career. In August 2020, Salem Ilese caught the eye of 10K Projects/Homemade Projects and signed a record deal. Shortly after, her breakout hit “Mad At Disney” gained viral momentum with over 300M streams and the creation of over 3.2M TikTok videos, all while holding placement on Spotify’s Today’s Top Hits playlist for over 15 weeks. From there she went on to release “Coke & Mentos” in November of 2020, premiering the track on Zane Lowe’s Apple Music show, followed by the release of her EP (L)onely Child in 2021. Beyond her own music, Salem has also collaborated with Alan Walker, Surfaces, Pussy Riot, Jamie Miller and more, while co-writing songs including TXT’s “Anti-Romantic” and Bella Poarch’s 2021 hit “Build A Bitch.” Cementing rising star status, Salem’s EP Unsponsored Content is out now, lead by single “PS5” with TXT and Alan Walker.