Ayo, (her name means "joy" in Yoruba), was born in Germany and is the daughter of a Nigerian father and a Romanian Roma (gypsy) mother. Ayo's rich cultural background inspired her to listen to her father's diverse collection of Donnie Hathaway, Jimmy Cliff, Fela Kuti and Pink Floyd. After teaching herself to play guitar, her career took off when she secured a spot to open for Omar and improvised alongside Cody Chesnutt at the stage of the Elysée-Montmartre. The result of her travels between Paris and New York is her debut album Joyful, a collection of bittersweet songs filled with all her various experiences and the people she's encountered along the way. Joyful was recorded in NYC in 5 days in live takes. The album has already sold over 500,000 copies in Europe and is now finally available in the US.