walking upstream…
Daya
Daya (Grace Martine Tandon) is an American pop singer-songwriter from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania who trained in classical piano from age three and switched to jazz piano at eleven, crediting that shift with opening up how she thought about melody and songwriting. She broke through in 2015 with the multi-platinum "Hide Away," then reached global chart-topping scale a year later as the featured voice on The Chainsmokers' "Don't Let Me Down," pairing radio-ready electropop production with a more soulful, piano-schooled sensibility underneath.
the sound in question
2015
Hide AwayDaya
walk the tributaries ↓
Amy Winehouse2000s · Soul / R&B / Jazz
Daya has repeatedly named Winehouse as a foundational vocal influence, telling one interviewer her sound was "so raw and had her unique sound; she paired jazz with pop and was so soulful at the same time" and that she "pulled from her a lot in the beginning." She also performs Winehouse's "Valerie" as a live cover, telling another interviewer plainly, "I love her."
listen: upstream & heresource: Lex Paige, "D A Y A ↗
2006
RehabAmy Winehouse
2016
CoolDaya
listen forListen for the lived-in, behind-the-beat phrasing and vocal-range flexing Winehouse brought to blue-eyed soul — the same instinct to let a note bend and rasp instead of sitting politely on pitch, filtered here through brighter, more compressed Top 40 pop production.
Alanis Morissette1990s · Alternative rock / Pop rock
Daya named Morissette alongside Amy Winehouse and Dido as a formative inspiration in a 2016 American Music Awards red-carpet interview about the artists who shaped her songwriting outlook. Beyond that on-record naming, no interview yet elaborates exactly how Morissette's writing shaped a specific Daya song, so the connection is best read as a stylistic through-line rather than a documented one-to-one borrowing.
listen: upstream & heresource: Billboard — "Daya on Her Inspirations ↗
1995
You Oughta KnowAlanis Morissette
2015
Sit Still, Look PrettyDaya
listen forListen for the blunt, talk-back directness Morissette brought to confessional pop-rock — a lyric that reads like it's arguing with someone rather than performing composure — scaled down here into a teen-pop key change and an electronic backbone.
Dido2000s · Pop / Downtempo / Trip hop / Folktronica
Daya named Dido in that same 2016 AMA interview alongside Amy Winehouse and Alanis Morissette as one of the artists who shaped her outlook on music. As with Morissette, no interview yet spells out a specific song-level debt, so the link is best understood as an admitted influence on her general sensibility rather than a traced borrowing.
listen: upstream & heresource: Billboard — "Daya on Her Inspirations ↗
1998
Thank YouDido
2015
Back to MeDaya
listen forListen for hushed, breathy restraint over a slow, programmed pulse — Dido's trademark of singing quietly and letting empty space in the mix carry the emotion, rather than belting through it — echoed in Daya's more downtempo, piano-led ballads.