Her warm vocals fill you with wanderlust. Like a voyage across the cupid-ville of a young hopeless romantic, F3line’s (pronounced Feline) music soars with quite the thrill. Across the eight-track love anthems in her just-released debut EP, Hopeless Romantic, Feline lucidly constructs her identity as a fierce, elegant and driven melody machine.

Born Etietop Bassey Utin, the Akwa Ibom songbird holds a First Class degree in Electrical Engineering. Yet, since her teenagehood the young maverick has found her energy flourishing the fiercest behind the microphone. Carving her path within the Nigerian music scene, helmed by her new record deal with Sony Music West Africa, the 24-year-old chanteuse is quickly becoming a fan favourite among the libraries of love records.

With her poignant lyricism and soft-toned vocals, Feline’s artistry glimmers as one of the most outstanding among the new class of Afrobeats musicians. However, what stands out the most about the cat lover is her confidence that stays shimmering like whiskers. In Hopeless Romantic, she owns the storytelling, charming easily with her femme POV, free-spirited harmonies and enchanting falsettos. In the five-tracker, she unfurls her experiences with falling in and out of love, channeling these core emotions that colour the record with refreshing candour.

Catching up with The Guardian, the young superstar unpacks her creative sonicverse, exploring her creative influences, come-up journey, muses, as well as other hues that define her colourful artistry as a super cool cat, among others.

How do you feel about dropping this project?
I’m excited to drop it because, honestly I feel like I’ve been brewing for a long time. So, I’m excited to drop, I am excited to see the reactions and everything and what comes up after.

What’s your backstory?
So, my backstory is in 2019. I started modeling to like supplements, my income because I was a student at the time and I wanted to earn more than what my mom was giving me at the time. So Jinmi Abduls texted me. He DMed me one day on Twitter and was like, Oh, are you a model? And I said yes. And he was like, Can you come to be in my video shoots? and I said yes. I mean, it’s the first time I’ve ever been in a music video shoot. So I was excited about the experience. So when I got there, I think Joeboy was there, Oxlade was there and Jinmi was also there. And I saw the glitz, the glam, like how people were making money off music. I’ve always been into music. I would always sing, but I just never knew how to make money off it or how to enter the music industry. More to speak in better words. So basically, I just went up to Jinmi Abduls and said, Oh, Jinmi, I can sing. And literally, he just said, Oh, really come to my studio tomorrow and let me see what you got. And the rest is history.

What are the voices that shaped your sound?
Growing up, I listened to lots of Beyonce, actually. When I entered my mid-years, like my teenagehood, basically I started listening to people like Jhene Aiko, Cassie, and a whole bunch of R&B influences. But I grew up on Beyonce, and for as long as I can remember, I have been listening to her.

What does this project embody?
This new project, Hopeless Romantic, just describes a person who loved and lost and just basically went through the five stages of grief. It just shows the journey of someone trying to get over it. Hopeless Romantic is basically just an expression of love and loss and the five stages of grief that go with it. The EP consists of five songs, The Life Cycle of Heartbreak,’ and If You Will’, but I just wanted to portray it as you know, being a hopeless romantic is not lost art like there is still a lot of us out there who just wants to love with our whole hearts, but maybe just maybe not enough for us. But it is what it is.

Walk us through your creative process.
So, I have a couple of processes in how I write because I’ve been in school most of the time, at Covenant University, and I only had the opportunity to record at home. I would write in school, just like write all my songs in school, then come home, and then record them but then the second way, which is my favorite, we’ll write scenes where I just, you know, be in the studio with the producer. He cooks up something as he’s cooking up, and I just write whatever the beat is telling me. I would just, you know, freestyle, but writing, and the writing type of freestyle. Yeah, those are my two processes

As a daring young woman trying to break into the music industry. How are you seeing the process?
I’m really just enjoying the process so far. And breathing everything in at the same time. It hasn’t been so rough but the music industry is a place where you have to just assert your ground or else they won’t take you seriously but I’ve been enjoying the ride.

What’s behind your name, F3line?
F3line basically just means claws or like, relating to cats. Growing up, I had a lot of cats, the highest number of cats I’ve had was about one to 10. So, right now I just have to say I’ve calmed down a bit, but I really love cats. They are such amazing creatures. They always have this dignified sense of elegance about them. So I just love cats and I love my cat so I decided to make that my full stage name.

Are there other fun facts?
Oh, a fun fact about me is that I really love cartoons. Like that’s basically all I’ve watched- Rick and Morty, American Dad. Cartoons are just my thing, so yeah.

What are we expecting next?
Well, I’m expecting to have more collaborations. I’m expecting to have more collaborations with other artists. I definitely look forward to performing the songs that I have, you know. There are just so many exciting things that I am looking forward to, and this is just the beginning of everything.

So what is your vision for F3line?
Long term, when people talk about R&B influences from Nigeria or pop influences from Nigeria, from Africa. I want them to think of F3line. I want to go on tour. Eventually, long-term. The sky is my starting point. I envision so much for myself to be very honest. F3line is about to become very big, in my opinion.