Amanie Illfated (pronounced: ah-MAH-nee eel-fay-ted) is an award winning South Sudanese born international recording artist. Her music consists of thought-provoking multilingual tracks mixed with a dynamic blend of Afropop and R&B, all combined with her signature, sweet-toned vocals. She incorporates her personal experiences including growing up as a refugee in Canada to deliver inspirational messages of empowerment, healing, diversity and fun. She has been described as the “African M.I.A.”.

The massive shock of having to adapt to two different cultures simultaneously caused Amanie to turn to music as a way of expressing herself. It was a path that caused many, including her parents, to doubt her success. After continuous threats of her music ‘thing’ not working out, Amanie embraced the concept and added Illfated to her stage name. “At some point I said, I guess I’m just going to have a bad future, cause I’m not leaving music,” she asserts.

Amanie won Best R&B Artist of the Year at the 2021 South Sudan Music Awards. She has also received 2 nominations by African Entertainment Awards for Best Female Artist and Musician of the Year by South Sudanese ACE Awards. She has worked with Juno award winning producers Taabu and James Bryan (The Philosopher Kings & Prozzäk).

She released her genre bending album ‘SATURN’ in October 2019 containing multilingual tracks like ‘The Hills’ and ‘You Will Never Know’. Her music has been played on various international radio shows including CBC’s Fresh Air and she has performed on Rogers TV for talk show 'Men 101' and on CTV Morning Regina. Amanie has been showcased and interviewed in numerous magazines such as Canadian Musician and Bustle Magazine as part of PUMA’s She Moves Us Campaign.

Additionally, she has performed internationally at notable festivals and venues such as Bagamoyo International Arts Festival in Tanzania (with attendance of Vice President Philip Mpango), Afrofest Toronto, TDotFest at Yonge & Dundas Square, African Descent Festival in Vancouver, South Sudan Unite 2019 in Minneapolis (held by former NBA Player Luol Deng) and RUKAFest in Juba, South Sudan. 

In January 2022, Amanie partnered with former refugee Sudan Warchild to sponsor 5 children from a refugee camp in Uganda to go to school in Kampala. She hopes to create more opportunities for young refugees to take control of their own futures.

Amanie released her highly anticipated sophomore album DIVINE on July 9, 2023 with a music video for single 'Big Man (Zol Kebir)' receiving over 300,000 views on Facebook. She is set to perform internationally including in New York, Juba and Capetown.

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