A Croydon singer has gone back to the classroom to launch a nationwide schools tour raising awareness of mental health in young people.

22 year old Shehbaz Ahmed, known as RnB artist K Zie, has already had a taste of success, writing a track for international popstar Justin Timberlake.

A former student of Whitgift School and Wallington Country Grammar School, K Zie started his musical journey at the age of 13 by teaching himself how to beatbox. After a number of performances around South London he decided to progress his songwriting skills and entered a competition at Point Blank Music College in London. Clearly a natural, he beat off stiff competition to work with a producer on a track for Timberlake’s 2018 album, “Man of the Woods”, and also earned the accolade of being one of the top 10 artists to look out for by Best of British Unsigned.


Following the release of his debut single in 2018, K Zie has spent most of the last year in the recording studio working on new music including new single “Between Our Bodies” produced by award winning producer Alan Sampson. The team around K Zie hope that the tracks' smooth and soulful vocals accompanied, thudding bassline and stylish music video will establish K Zie as the latest musical export to come out of Croydon, following in the footsteps of Stormzy who earlier this year headlined Glastonbury Festival.


K Zie’s is one of a handful of rising young stars selected to headline the schools tour initiative which features performances and a discussion about mental health, discrimination, online safety and cyberbullying. The tour aims to raise awareness through music of the struggles facing young people in communities across the UK and will provide signposting for those needing help.


Despite being influenced by some of pops biggest names - Craig David, Usher and Prince - to name just a few, K Zie feels that sometimes opinions of others can sometimes be a drawback of the creative process - “the problem with music is that either people love your work or they are simply not keen on it. I think finding the balance between taking on board opinions that will help you as an artist and opinions that are simply hateful is very important. But I one thing I have learnt is that ultimately out of everyone's opinion it is your opinion as the artist which matters the most", he said.


K Zie hopes that by sharing his own experiences of receiving hateful and abusive messages and comments online that he can inspire the next generation of talent to “follow their dreams, no matter what they are”.


K Zie’s schools tour will run throughout the remainder of the Autumn term. His new single ‘Between Our Bodies’ is out now on all major streaming and download platforms.