Brand new music video from Zuko Sian

Based in London, Zuko Sian is an artist of Dutch–South African heritage, creating music that flows across hip hop, jazz and soul styles. While she’s new on the scene, her journey began long before the spotlight; after majoring in hip hop at music school, Zuko moved to London to chase her own original musical vision. She wanted to write music that reflected real life, all the tangled relationships, the complex family dynamics and emotional realities of womanhood, captured in her honest style of songwriting.

“I’ve always believed in calling things out because I care,” she shares, outlining a philosophy that ripples throughout her work. Despite being at the dawn of her recording career, Zuko has already collaborated with some of the industry’s biggest names. Grammy-winning producers Sam Barsh, who’s worked with Doja Cat, Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak and Jordan Waré, whose credits include Justin Bieber, Alicia Keys and Madonna have both lent their hands to shaping her early sound.

Making her entrance in August, she unveiled her sound with the debut single “Crying in the Light” and now she brings us the follow up with her brand new sophomore single titled “Spill A Little Tea.” Recorded in a small Bethnal Green home studio, “Spill A Little Tea” was born out of intimate late night sessions that began with conversation and a cup of chamomile tea. “The song is about standing by your truth, even when people don’t like the version of you that speaks up,” Zuko explains.

The track flows with jazz-inflected melodies and warm hip hop production, drawing listeners into Zuko’s emotional orbit through her expressive vocals. Brought in by her rich voice above the mellow shake of percussive elements, the arrangement expands with bright guitar chords and smooth basslines before the crisp rattle of jumping hip hop drums ushers in a soulful jam that rolls with alluring melodic leads and heartfelt lyrical writing.

Flickering between silky melodic lines and slick rapped flow, the hook lands with “You can say what you want, what you want about me, but all I ever did was spill a little tea,” injecting an infectiously catchy vibe into the track. Just as vital as the song is its visual counterpart, directed by Jade Laurelle, presenting a music video that thematically reimagines Paul Delaroche’s 1833 painting The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, one of the National Gallery’s most haunting works.

Together with cinematographer Bea da Gama, Zuko and her team recreated the scene in meticulous detail from handcrafted set pieces to authentic costumes, including the gown worn by Helena Bonham Carter in the 1986 film Lady Jane. “It felt like a full-circle moment – a resurrection of history and a tribute to every woman who’s been silenced,” she says.

She adds, “While Delaroche’s painting wasn’t feminist in a modern sense, it highlighted a woman destroyed by structures of male power. That story still echoes today — in laws, in cultures, in daily life. Spill A Little Tea is my way of saying: we won’t be silent anymore.” Equal parts musician and storyteller, Zuko stands at the crossroads of sound, art and activism and with her second single, she’s going from strength to strength on what’s sure to be her breakout year.

Watch the music video for Spill A Little Tea below

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