Maty Noyes first made waves last year when she sang backup vocals on The Weeknd’s dramatic album closer “Angel.” Press outlets scrambled to find information on the semi-anonymous L.A. based singer.
The basics: Maty Noyes is 18, from Corinth, Mississippi, and released an eponymous four-song EP in 2013. Until recently, Noyes has flown relatively under the radar—her contributions to Beauty Behind the Madness are denoted deep in the liner notes (some people confused her voice for Lana Del Rey’s).
But it seems that Noyes’ semi-obscurity won’t last long. Her recent collaboration with Kygo, “Stay,” debuted at No. 8 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Charts and has remained on Spotify’s “Today’s Top Hits” playlist for the past three weeks.
With her dulcet vocals at the forefront on “Stay,” Noyes wrestles over whether to leave her lover. She explained to the Genius community that she wrote the song while going through a rough patch with her boyfriend.
“I’m usually not the kind of person who will stay and stick around but in this case it was with someone that I really, really, really liked and had a lot of hope for,” she shared. “I could feel the potential. You just have to work and stick through it and either goes good or bad. In this case it ended up going good… It’s someone I’m still with."
The budding singer’s career seems equally promising. It all starts with her voice: soulful with a hint of scruff that makes it sound like she’s got a mild cold. Whether the lead performer or supporting singer, Noyes has the ability to arouse emotion in her listeners. Just check out the piano version of “Stay,” on which her voice quivers and shakes in a way that reveals the realness of her words.
