Before she was Amira Unplugged, rapper, singer, and a Becoming a Popstar contestant on MTV, she was Amira Daughtery, a twenty-five year-old Georgian, with aspirations of becoming a lawyer. āI thought my career path was going to lead me to law because thatās the way I thought I would help people,ā Amira tells xoNecole. ā[But] I always came back to music.ā
A music lover since childhood, Amira grew up in an artistic household where passion for music was emphasized. āMy dad has always been my huge inspiration for music because heās a musician himself and is so passionate about the history of music.ā Amiraās also dealt with deafness in one ear since she was a toddler, a condition which she says only makes her more āintentionalā about the music she makes, to ensure that what she hears inside her head can translate the way she wants it to for audiences.
āThe loss of hearing means a person canāt experience music in the conventional way,ā she says. āIāve always responded to bigger, bolder anthemic songs because I can feel them [the vibrations] in my body, and I want to be sure my music does this for deaf/HOH people and everyone.ā

Amira Unplugged and other contestants on Becoming a Popstar
Amira Unplugged / MTV
In order to lift peopleās spirits at the beginning of the pandemic, Amira began posting videos on TikTok of herself singing and using sign language so her music could reach her deaf fans as well. She was surprised by how quickly she was able to amass a large audience. It was through her videos that she caught the attention of a talent scout for MTVās new music competition show for rising TikTok singers, Becoming a Popstar. After a three-month process, Amira was one of those picked to be a contestant on the show.
Becoming a Popstar, as Amira describes, is different from other music competition shows weāve all come to know over the years. āWell, first of all, itās all original music. Thereās not a single cover,ā she says. āWe have to write these songs in like a day or two and then meet with our producers, meet with our directors. Every week, we are producing a full project for people to vote on and decide if theyād listen to it on the radio.ā
To make sure her deaf/HOH audiences can feel her songs, she makes sure to āadd more bass, guitar, and violin in unique patterns.ā She also incorporates āhigher pitch sounds with like chimes, bells, and piccolo,ā because, she says, theyāre easier to feel. āBut itās less about the kind of instrument and more about how I arrange the pattern of the song. Everything I do is to create an atmosphere, a sensation, to make my music a multi-sensory experience.ā
She says that working alongside the judgesāpop stars Joe Jonas and Becky G, and choreographer Sean Bankhead ā has helped expand her artistry. āJoe was really more about the vocal quality and the timber and Becky was really about the passion of [the song] and being convinced this was something you believed in,ā she says. āAnd what was really great about [our choreographer] Sean is that obviously heās a choreographer to the stars ā Lil Nas X, Normani ā but he didnāt only focus on choreo, he focused on stage presence, he focused on the overall message of the song. And I think all those critiques week to week helped us hone in on what we wanted to be saying with our next song.ā
As her star rises, itās been both her Muslim faith and her friends, whom she calls āThe Glasses Gangā (ābecause none of us can see!ā), that continue to ground her. āThe Muslim and the Muslima community have really gone hard [supporting me] and all these people have come together and I truly appreciate them,ā Amira says. āI have just been flooded with DMs and emails and texts from [young muslim kids] people who have just been so inspired,ā she says. āPeople who have said they have never seen anything like this, that I embody a lot of the style that they wanted to see and that the message hit them, which is really the most important thing to me.ā

Amira Unplugged
Amira Unplugged / MTV
Throughout the showās production, she was able to continue to uphold her faith practices with the help of the crew, such as making sure her food was halal, having time to pray, dressing modestly, and working with female choreographers. āIf people can accept this, can learn, and can grow, and bring more people into the fold of this industry, then Iām making a real difference,ā she says.
Though she didnāt win the competition, this is only the beginning for Amira. Whether itās on Becoming a Popstar or her videos online, Amira has made it clear she has no plans on going anywhere but up. āIām so excited that Iāve gotten this opportunity because this is really, truly what I think Iām meant to do.ā