YeNie Ann Walker

Walker (2022)

### Studio Albums

AVEM, Live Fast, Heading Home, Contritos Mundi, Memories of A Decade, LUNA, Alan, Rave Culture Vol.I, The Heartbreak Club, YeNa, Lighthouse

**YeNa Anngeline Williams-Walker** *(born 24 August 1998)*, mostly known as **YeNie Ann Walker** or **Walker**, is a British EDM producer and DJ based on Edinburgh, United Kingdom. She was born on the 24th of August, 1998 on Glasgow in Scotland, to her mother Emelia Parkinson-Williams and father Grayson Williams. She has released 7 studio albums and 2 extended plays, her most recent being *"Rave Culture Vol. I",* which was her first collaboration album with Filipino co-producer Mello Jia, and was officially released on 25 March 2022.

Her discography mainly focus on one genre - house. She is most known for her electro house and progressive electro house styles. She instantly arose into the music industry with her debut album *"AVEM"* on which not just paved way for Walker's career on the industry but also for the EDM genre, and became her most memorable works ever.

## Early Life and Career

### Early Life and Beginning

YeNa Ann Williams-Walker was born in Glasgow, Scotland, but her family decided to move to Edinburgh when she was just 2 years old, and there she was raised. She started to be close with music at the age of 7, although her family has no musical background at all. She started by performing into family events and celebrations. That is when her family knew she had a special talent in music, and they knew they had to do something to support their daughter's special attributes. They decided to enroll her to a tons of music lessons, specifically piano and voice lessons. Her piano skills really improved well, but at the same time, she lost interest in singing, and that is when she decided to be a producer instead.

She started as a DJ by finally performing outside her home - to clubs, parties, etc. Until one time, while on her way at her performance to a club in Edinburgh, she was approached by a producer on the label *Joytime Collective* and asked her if she want to release music with them. She didn't hesitated to agree and officially signed the contract on August 2021.

### September-October 2021: The AVEM Era and The Aviation Tour

Walker's rise to fame also means EDM's rise to the industry. With her breakthrough debut "***AVEM"****,* she paved way for EDM genre to the industry. The biggest evidence is when the music streaming platform ***Spotify*** declared the album as the ***"Best Debut Album of All Time"*** and also keeps the record for being the ***"Most Streamed Debut Album of All Time"*** and ***"Most Streamed EDM Song of All Time"*** for its lead single *"Fantasy".* The album then embarked on *The Aviation Tour* on where she visited 12 cities around the world.

To continue *The AVEM Era,* she then released her second studio album ***"Live Fast"*** which became moderately known and reached number 24 on Billboard Top 200 All-Time Charts. She later embarked the album on *The Aviation Tour II* together with her third studio album *"Heading Home".*

Besides on the said tours, she also performed both albums on music festival performance that she ever had in that era - including her first ever set on *Tomorrowland Festival* and *Ultra Music Festival*. She also performed the albums on awards shows - The Grammys, American Music Awards, and MTV Video Music Awards.

### November-December 2021: The Heading Home Era, The Aviation Tour II, #10WithU World Tour, and Neon Lights World Tour

After a few success on The AVEM Era, Walker officially started *The Heading Home Era* by releasing her third studio album ***"Heading Home"***. The album was moderately recognized, but became the **Most Critically Acclaimed Album** by the critics. She also once stated that it is personally her most favourite album she made, alongside her 5th studio album *"Memories of A Decade"* and seventh album *"Alan"*.

Before she had her fourth studio album, she announced the release of her first extended play ***"Be On My Side"*** along with the release of its lead single *"The Awakening".* The EP was moderately recognized and became the **Most Streamed EP of All Time** on streaming platform *Spotify.*

To continue her second official era, she surprised her fans with her fourth studio album ***"Contritos Mundi"***. It was dubbed as the **Bible of EDM** after her debut album *"AVEM"*. One of its singles *"Remember Us"* spent 9 weeks at number 1 on Billboard Top 100 and became the longest running number 1 single by Walker at its time. The album became as memorable as her debut album, and became a successful album on the mainstream.

She ends the era with her first *greatest hits* album ***"Memories of A Decade"***. The album consists of 2 sides; *Side A: The Core Memory* which includes 10 of her hit singles for the past decade including *"Fantasy"* and *"Remember Us"*; and *Side B: Our New Memories* which includes 10 new tracks that was released on its time.

Weeks after releasing the album, she started ***"#10WithU World Tour"*** in London, UK, on where she made **372 shows** on 6 continents around the world. The album became the **Highest Grossing Tour** by Walker.

She considered this album as the *ups-and-downs* era because of the albums' recognition in mainstream, hence the reason why it is her favourite era. As part of the promotion of the albums and EP, as always she performed the songs in her interview with *Capital FM*. She also performs the songs on awards shows - The Grammys, American Music Awards, and MTV Video Music Awards. She was actually supposed to embark her fourth album *"Contritos Mundi"* on a tour she named ***"Neon Lights World Tour"***, but due to her schedule conflicts between the fourth album tour and her fifth album release, the idea was terminated. In the said tour, she was supposed to make 230 shows in 7 continents including Antarctica.

### January-April: Full Moon Era, *Unity in One Harmony World Tour*

Before the era starts, she successfully manage her first major project *"Walkerland Festival"* on which she and other 4 EDM producers take up on the stage. At the same moment, she also released the theme song for the project titled *"This is Walkerland"*.

She officially started her full moon era with the release of her single *"Space Melody"* alongside her sixth album ***"LUNA".*** The said album has 5 promotional singles and four of them - *"Space Melody", "Tears Fades Into Dust", "Man On The Moon"* and *"Paradise"* has peaked at number 1 on Billboard Top 100. She officially released the album on 19 January 2022, together with the last single *"Paradise"*. Months after the release, she focused on promoting the album, and performed it to festivals and award shows.

After months of promoting the album, she once again, started the Year Two of her major project *"Walkerland Festival"* on which she and other 3 producers, including producer Mello Jia, take up on stage. It was Mello's debut performance on stage.

Weeks after the event, she started to work on both her second extended play ***"Save Me"*** and seventh album ***"Alan"*** without giving a context publicly. She started when she released the lead single for the EP - *"Panic Room"* and 2 singles for the album - *"Hiding in The Blue"* and *"Makes Me Shivers"* featuring singer Manu. Before she officially released her second EP, she dropped singles *"Give Me Space!"* and *"Save Me"*. She released the EP on 16 February 2022 together with the last single of the same name. After the release of *"Save Me"*, she fully worked on releasing and promoting her seventh album. She officially released the album on 24 February 2022, then the Deluxe Version on 12 March 2022, together with its last two singles *"Just A Touch"* and *"Lovin' Every Minute"*. She moderately promoted the album on sets, interviews and her performances on award shows.

Weeks while she's working on the Deluxe Version of her seventh album, she started to work on to her first collaboration with her co-producer Mello Jia titled ***"Rave Culture Vol.I"*** and released the lead single *"High on Life"* on 25 February 2022, followed by its music video the next day. The single became widely known, together with its second single *"I'll Be There x2"* featuring producer Slushii. The same day of announcement of the Deluxe Version of her seventh album, she also released *"Nobody Compares To You"* featuring producer Gryffin and singer Ven. Then later on, they dropped *"Alone"* on 16 March 2022, *"Destiny"* featuring Manu and Tobu on 22 March 2022, *"Darkside"* featuring Hema on the same day of album release, and ended with *"We Are The People"* featuring Martin Garrix on 29 March 2022. They embarked the album on their recent tour ***"Unity in One Harmony World Tour"*** in which they visited 7 countries including Antarctica together with their special guests. The said tour gathered over 2.5 attendees all around the world and earned $325M box office.

Before the official announcement of the album, Walker already debuted the singles many times in award shows and her music festival performances, the most remembered one was when she first time headlined on the Ultra Music Festival in Belgium, on where she played *"Darkside", "Destiny"* and track *"We're Beautiful Now"*, together with her older songs.

### April-August 2022: The Still Young Era

- the era starts when she released the lead single of her ninth album ***"The Heartbreak Club"***, with the title *"On My Own''*, followed by the second single *"Nightmare''*, third single *"Why''* featuring The Chainsmokers, *"Highway Right Into My Soul''* featuring Alan Walker, fifth single *"Haunting'',* and lastly, *"...and it's going dark''*. The said album also had its special stadium performance "Ten Last Tears'', and a photobook "A Deeper Journey To The Heartbreak Club''; which features some exclusive behind the scenes, performances and other photos all about The Heartbreak Club. The album performed well in terms of charts and publicity.

*-* the era continued with her first ever summer ep, and her third overall, ***"palm trees"***. She started the extended play with the collaboration lead single *"Dancing Feet"*, with Kygo and DNCE, followed with her two more solo songs *"'til we fall"* and *"tick tock, tick tock"*. The said ep performed well, but not as expected to be.

- the queendom phase of the era starts unannounced, with her tenth studio album, second *greatest hits* compilation, and first self-titled project, ***"YeNa"***; with the single "Kings & Queens" being the lead. Followed by its second single "Rather Be" featuring Clean Bandit, third, "Screw Feelings", and the lasts being "My Head & My Heart" and a sequel of her song, "Alone, Pt.II" featuring Ava Max. The said album also had its fair recognition from the mainstream and the charts.

- she ended this short era with her first tour ep, and fourth overall, ***"Young in Love"***. The Young in Love phase started with the lead single *"Lonely World"* with K-391, released 3 days after her tour Young in Love World Tour starts. Followed by the second single *"Dead Girl! (Shake My Head)"*, and the last single being the title track *"Young in Love"* featuring Manu, which released on the last day of the said world tour, together with the ep itself.

- she officially ended this era, as she embark four of her albums: *"Luna", "Alan", "The Heartbreak Club"* and *"YeNa"*, on her recently-ended tour ***"Young in Love World Tour"***, visiting 6 continents alone, with no celebrity guests.

### Undefined Date: The Light Era

Yes, undefined date. The era hasn't started yet, but Walker has been sending out hints and trailers for the said era. Recently, she released the first trailer of her next album titled *"You're Finally Here"*. Some of her fans also found a link on her account, directing into the site where you can pre-save the supposed lead single of the upcoming album ***"Everybody"**.* That is all I can say for now ;) (ps. i would actually be surprised if someone on the server found this detail, so in case you do, do tell me XDD)

## Tours

Walker embarked 3 tours as of now - ***"The Aviation Tour"*** - an album tour for her debut album *AVEM; **"The Aviation Tour II"*** - an album tour for her second and third studio albums *Live Fast* and *Heading Home;* and ***"#10WithU World Tour"*** as part of the decade anniversary of her debut album. All of the aformentioned tours has grossed over $745M in total, and attended by over 5.5M Potatoes all around the world in total.

She is now recently on a tour with her duo Mello Jia - ***"Unity in One Harmony World Tour"***.

## Controversies

### The rumour of her leaving her current record label

On 16 February 2022, Walker released her second extended play *"Save Me"*, the same era when there was rumor quickly spreading that she will leave her current record label *Joytime Collective.* After the release, the fans suspected more about the connection between the rumor and the EP, but she then clarified in an interview that there's no connection between it.

*"No! They never locked me up at any means, besides, they're just letting me decide what's next project or something for my career then they're just gonna support it or suggest for the next - just like in my Walkerland project - and we'll talk about it or something, like, they're like my family you know?"* - Walker in an interview on Capital FM

She also clarified that she will never leave the record label, and will stay there forever.

### First Time singing Live

On 19 February 2022, she first time performed on *Saturday Night Live* where She performed her songs *"Hiding in the Blue"* and *"The Only One".* Walker surprised everyone when she grabbed the microphone and started singing *"The Only One"*. Despite of her lack of experience in singing, plus her sore throat that time, she still managed to end the night with an outstanding performance. And of course, after the performance, people started to give their negative opinions everywhere, where people said that she shouldn't have did that, and stayed as a DJ instead.

She clapped back at them when she released her own song cover of her song *"Man On The Moon"* and *"Collision"* which both has intense tune, and people dared not to talk negatively about it again. Instead, she received a lot of support from her fans, and helped her regain confidence in singing again.

### Her relationship

Walker keeps her personal life as much as she can, but she can also tell what's up when her fans ask her. Until, her fans finally asked her about her dating status, since the release of her seventh album *"Alan".* The album is a full-love themed album, resulting a curiosity from Potatoes.

Not until she finally confirmed it on 11 March 2022 that she is dating someone, but she didn't tell who. She also added that they've been together since before the Heading Home era was launched. She also hinted that he once pretended to be her brother in order for their relationship to be seamless. People was still knowing who it was, while waiting for the very official announcement by either of them.

## Discography

### Albums

* *AVEM* (September-October 2021)
* *Live Fast* (October 2021)
* *Heading Home* (November 2021)
* *Contritos Mundi* (November-December 2021)
* *Memories of A Decade* (December 2021)
* *LUNA* (January 2022)
* *Alan* (February-March 2022)
* *Rave Culture Vol.I* (March-April 2022)
* *The Heartbreak Club* (April-May 2022)
* *YeNa* (June-August 2022)
* *Lighthouse* (November 2022-February 2023)
* *Epitome* (March-May 2023)
* *Create (Unreleased)*

### EPs

* *Be On My Side* (November 2021)
* *Save Me* (January-February 2022)
* *palm trees* (June-July 2022)

### Live Albums

* *Contritos Mundi (The Live Version)* (February 2022)

### Tours

* *The Aviation Tour (AVEM Album Tour)* (October 2021)
* *The Aviation Tour II; Living Life Before We Go Home (Live Fast x Heading Home Album Tour)* (November 2021)
* *#10WithU World Tour* (December 2021)
* *Young in Love World Tour* (31 July-25 August 2022)
* *Epitomical Eventide (Epitome Album Tour)* (June 2023)

### Major Projects

* *Walkerland Festival* (December 2021)
* *Walkerland Festival Year Two* (January 2022)