Nando & Sylvia Tosun

When I popped over to Mayra Segovia's F Studio last week, I expected to find shampoo bottles, conditioning treatments and the sweet smell of Mayra's success lingering in the air, but instead I found a dynamic, stylish and ever-smiling woman named Sylvia Tosun who captivated me with her bright smile, soulful eyes and pink rollers that Mayra was wrapping her hair in.

Mayra: Come meet Sylvia, the singer, we're doing a spiral perm on her.
Sylvia: Do you remember those?
Nando: Do I remember them? I fried my hair off trying to recreate them!

I approached Sylvia Tosun like I approach all recording artists, with a clumsy walk and a stalker-like stare. She immediately warmed up to me and flashed her pearly whites.

Sylvia: Hi, I'm Sylvia.
Nando: Nice to meet you. How did you hear about Mayra's Salon?
Sylvia: I went to get my nails done at the nail place and there she was!
Nando: Mayra has a way of appearing in people's lives with a purpose. Her purpose in my life is to transform my fried locks into a glorious mane. She has her work cut out for her.

I’ve never really spoken to a real singer while she was getting her hair done. I was very curious to find out more about this Sylvia Tosun. So immediately after leaving the salon, I did my research and discovered that Miss Thing is a graduate from Juilliard, and her current single Underlying Feeling is creating a major buzz in the UK --it just hit number 2 on the club charts and from the looks of it, she’s about to take the USA by storm.

But Sylvia's no stranger to fame; in 2005 she gave a vibrant performance in Beijing, China where she rocked the house, or should I say, wall (The Great Wall) at the "Wall of Hope” concert where she sang in Mandarin. And I'm not talking oranges here; I'm telling you sister-girl sang in Mandarin Chinese as well as English. She worked that stage, along with Alicia Keys and Cyndi Lauper. I got chills reading about her and talent.

Just as I was about to click out of my "Tosun Google" searches: award-winning songwriter, ethereal vocalist, and sexy dairy farmer’s daughter, I came across information that impressed me and had me shaking in my boots: The New York Times described the singer as "exciting and timeless." Billboard magazine said Tosun's songs are a "journey across an exotic world music palette… all her own and simply fascinating."

Did I shake her hand earlier as if she were a regular human being? I think I did. I need to go back and bow down before her. And this time I’d be more suave, sophisticated and demure—so unlike myself. I returned to the salon, as Sylvia’s perm was a 4-hour process, and I discovered Sylvia under a huge machine that appeared as if it were teleporting her thoughts to the mother ship. I walked over to her and she flashed her signature smile and asked me to hand her the purse that was perched on a stand next to her. She reached in and handed me a copy of her single, “Underlying Feeling.”

I froze, looked away and almost peed in my pants. I thanked her for the cd and like a hunchback ready to go back into hiding and only come out when it’s time to ring the bells, I lurched away knowing that now I would go home to review her music with high hopes as Sylvia Tosun gave me an “Underlying Feeling.”




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