Muzik Lil Muzik, Now SunDivas, Interviewed by Vivaa in New York in 2013

Before they became known as SunDivas, sisters Samantha and Nadine Bryant were building their name in UK Soca as Muzik Lil Muzik.

In 2013, the London-based duo connected with Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson in New York for a Julianspromos interview, during a year when MLM was actively pushing its music beyond the UK and onto international stages.

The surviving Julianspromos media history specifically lists “Muzik lil Muzik NY Interview (2013)” among Vivaa’s assignments from that year, placing the conversation alongside a busy season of New York Carnival, artist and event coverage for the platform.

Meet Muzik Lil Muzik

Muzik Lil Muzik was made up of sisters Samantha and Nadine Bryant, two London-raised performers whose Caribbean background stretches through St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Barbados.

Music had been part of their lives from childhood. The sisters grew up learning instruments including piano, guitar and steel pan, while also singing, dancing and studying music theory. Their upbringing mixed Caribbean sounds with the wider musical influences of London, including reggae, R&B, gospel and other contemporary styles.

That combination eventually led them toward Soca.

By the early 2010s, Muzik Lil Muzik had emerged as one of the young female acts helping develop the UK Soca scene.

Making UK Soca History

MLM had already accumulated significant accomplishments before arriving in New York in 2013.

In 2011, the sisters won both the UK Groovy Soca Monarch and Power Soca Monarch competitions, with “2Flag” and “Make A Way.” Later accounts describe them as the first artistes to capture both UK competitions in the same year.

Their momentum continued in 2012.

Contemporary profiles reported recognition including a Calabash Award and a Soca Music Award, while the duo also received international Soca award attention for its music.

So the artists standing with Vivaa in New York in 2013 were not simply a brand-new act getting their first introduction.

They were already helping carve out a space for UK-produced Soca.

Taking “Colonise” Beyond the UK

The timing of the interview is especially interesting because 2013 became a very international year for Muzik Lil Muzik.

That April, the duo released “Colonise,” a song built around the idea of Caribbean culture and Soca spreading outward across the world. The track appeared on UK producer Soca Child 360’s Palm Tree Riddim alongside artists including Hypasounds and Ms. Desire.

The concept was almost a mission statement for what MLM was doing at the time.

Later documentation of the duo describes a 2013 “Colonise Tour” that included appearances in New York, Berlin, Sweden, Wales, London and Leicester, as well as radio promotion in the UK.

The Julianspromos interview therefore captures MLM during the same year that the sisters were actively taking their Soca identity outside Britain.

“OMG” and a Different Side of Soca

Muzik Lil Muzik also experimented with the genre in 2013.

In June, the sisters released “OMG,” which they described as their first Gospel Soca release. The song used Soca as a vehicle for faith while drawing inspiration from Caribbean music traditions and artists including David Rudder and Isaac Blackman.

That willingness to move between traditional party-oriented Soca and other themes was already part of MLM's identity.

The sisters had grown up surrounded by church music, Caribbean culture, dance and multiple musical genres, and their work increasingly reflected all of those influences.

Vivaa Meets the UK Soca Sisters in New York

For Julianspromos, the interview added another international angle to its growing artist coverage.

Much of the platform's early interview work naturally centered on Caribbean artists from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St. Vincent and other islands.

Muzik Lil Muzik represented something slightly different.

They were Caribbean diaspora artists developing Soca from London and trying to help the genre grow in a market outside the Caribbean.

That made their New York stop particularly fitting.

London artists.

A New York Caribbean media platform.

And a music genre connecting both cities back to the Caribbean.

The surviving interview captures those worlds crossing in 2013.

From Muzik Lil Muzik to SunDivas

The name on the old Julianspromos video is now part of the group's history.

After the Muzik Lil Muzik era, Samantha and Nadine performed as Sunshine & Nadiva, before eventually adopting the combined identity SunDivas. A 2019 Searchlight profile explicitly identifies the duo as SunDivas, while later artist profiles continue documenting Samantha “Sunshine” Bryant and Nadine “Nadiva” Bryant under that name.

Their Soca career continued well beyond the period captured in the Julianspromos interview.

The sisters have remained active as singers, dancers and musicians, carrying the Caribbean influences that originally shaped Muzik Lil Muzik into the next stages of their career.

That gives this old interview an interesting perspective today.

In 2013, viewers knew them as Muzik Lil Muzik.

Years later, Soca audiences would know those same two sisters as SunDivas.

A Snapshot Before the Name Changed

That's what makes the footage worth revisiting.

It catches Samantha and Nadine during a particular stage in their development, when Muzik Lil Muzik was touring internationally, releasing new UK Soca and trying to push the music into markets beyond London.

The name would change.

Their career would evolve.

But the two sisters standing with Vivaa in New York were already building the foundation of what came next.

Today they're SunDivas.

In the Julianspromos archive, this is Muzik Lil Muzik in New York, 2013.