Eva Burešová Reinvents Herself: The Singer Becomes Metalhead Saya

Czech singer and actress Eva Burešová has announced a major shift in her artistic direction: leaving her familiar pop sound behind, she has turned to rock and metal and is now performing under a new stage name, Saya. The first fruit of this transformation is the single "Mlč" ("Be Silent").

From Pop to Heavy Rock

According to the singer, she had long harbored a desire to make heavier music — she had always listened to rock, metal and grunge, but for a long time doubted whether her voice suited such genres. A year and a half ago, she decided to push aside her doubts and began working with producer and musician Filip Vlček. Their collaboration eventually resulted in the new single.

To master growls, screams and other extreme vocal techniques, the singer began taking lessons in specialized vocal methods. She says these techniques will also appear on her upcoming album, due out next spring, though the record won't be built around them exclusively. She had previously worried that harsh singing might damage her vocal cords, but the training has helped her avoid that risk.

An "Epidemic of Indifference" and a New Music Video

The idea for "Mlč" was born almost a year ago, when the singer, driving her car, came up with the phrase "epidemic of indifference" — which, in her view, perfectly captures the state of modern society, which ignores what truly matters in favor of trivial things. She worked on the track in the studio together with producer Filip Vlček, brothers Štěpán and Matěj Jelen from the band Brixtn, and Dan Holý of the group Trocha klidu.

The authors had originally wanted to use "epidemic of indifference" as the song's title, but discovered that the band Hentai Corporation had already used a similar title for a release in January. In the end, the track was simply named "Mlč."

The idea for the music video came to the singer almost immediately: she envisioned a world where everyone is connected to a kind of black liquid through which they receive information, whether they want it or not — essentially a metaphor for the smartphone, which people constantly stare into, absorbing useless or misleading content. The video also features an armed unit that ensures people don't escape from this world of excess information into the ruined ordinary world.

Why the Name Saya

The artist adopted her new stage name a year and a half ago, feeling an inner need to distance herself from the image of Eva Burešová, which the public associates with earlier chapters of her career already left behind. The name Saya means "princess" in Finnish, though the singer insists she wasn't deliberately searching for a Finnish word — she only learned its meaning later, having simply always liked foreign-sounding names.

For now, it remains only a stage name: in the near future, the singer plans to perform as Eva Saya Burešová, with the eventual goal of fully transitioning to simply Saya. She is currently turning down television and film roles, explaining that she has always been, first and foremost, a singer — and intends to stay one.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz