Raleigh musician Azul’s quirky, disco-infused vibe carries influences of jazz, musicals and Latino folk as she champions an era of music that never died.
By David Menconi | Photography by Bryan Regan
Raleigh singer Azul released “Disco Never Died” in 2025, but it’s a song with the sound, spirit and vibes you might have heard on a nightclub dancefloor at the late-1970s height of the Saturday Night Fever era. Strings swell over a danceable beat, with a refrain — “Disco never died at all, you only knew me by one name” — that you’d swear adds up to a gigantic hit in a parallel universe.
The way Azul sees it, disco is immortal because it’s a Rosetta stone that unlocks a half-century of popular music. She ticks off everywhere you’ll still hear traces of disco, from hip-hop to glam rock and even grunge. After all, she notes, Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl has always cited disco beats as his secret weapon.
“Yeah, Dave Grohl has always loved that four-on-the-floor kick drum,” Azul says with a laugh. “All popular music has some disco in it. I’m a 33-year-old millennial, so I’ve seen a lot of things end. Things we thought would last forever are no longer around. But disco’s legacy is undying and I love that. I even trademarked the phrase ‘Disco never died.’ I was surprised it was available.”
That’s a smart strategy, but Azul has always played the long game. Her Instagram page introduces Azul as a “Queer immigrant singer-songwriter with a lot of feelings,” and she proves it with music that is openly, lavishly, disarmingly emotional. Another of her songs asks the listener if they believe in magic before adding, “I’m not trying to scare you, just asking.”
In recent years, Azul has developed into a distinctive, idiosyncratic local voice through a series of self-released singles and mini-albums. Amy Cox, senior vice president of Deep South Entertainment, has been booking Azul at events including the North Carolina State Fair for years, after being wowed by her at open-mic nights.
“She consistently delivers and has a rare, genuine connection with the audience in a no-fear-no-holding-back kind of way,” Cox says of Azul. “I love that and believe our music community is stronger because of it.”
Born in Argentina, Azul Zapata came to America with her family at age 3 and grew up in the southeastern U.S. She spent her formative teenage years in the North Carolina town of Statesville as a self-described “boisterous young person.” Even though she exudes theater-kid vibes, she was never in either theater or chorus during her school years.
“Nope, never in chorus because it’s where all the mean girls were,” Azul says. “So I was with the band kids because you could be weird there. The chorus was more uptight.”
Music was always a part of life during Azul’s younger years with both parents and her brother (who is also a musician, in Los Angeles). She adopted trumpet as her main instrument because it fits her personality, she says: “a little bit loud, but it travels well.”
After high school, Azul went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned a degree in global studies, plus minors in journalism and Hindi. But full-time employment after college proved elusive. After a series of job interviews that came to naught, Azul says she “got mad and left the country.” She landed in France as au pair, which gave her ample free time to pursue music more seriously.
“I got to be known as this weird Argentinian-American chick who’d show up and sing shamelessly,” she says. “That’s the freedom I had in France, and it felt like I rebirthed myself as a musician.”
She took inspiration from the latter-day disco-derived music of her childhood, late-1990s pop by Ricky Martin, Cher and Celine Dion. Add the influence of the jazz she played in high school bands, the Latino folk she heard growing up and musicals like Chicago and Moulin Rouge, and her sonic template was set. That’s the sound Azul has pursued since returning to America and taking up residence in Raleigh.
In the Triangle, Azul does a little of everything to get by: working retail, cleaning houses, coordinating events, playing cover-band gigs at weddings and restaurants. She is also a partner and outreach coordinator at Drum Team Collective, a firm that specializes in “Rock & Roll Team Building.”
Azul’s releases since 2021 include last year’s Death, Love & Disco and Live at the Flat Iron (Part One). A second live EP is due out this fall, as she works up to a full-length album. She has ideas for one in mind, but just needs time and funding to bring them to life.
In the meantime, you’ll see her on local stages, most likely in the role of championing underdogs. Like sharks, as heard on her 2023 single “Sharks.”
“Sharks look scary, but they’re like the puppies of the marine animal kingdom because they explore the world with their mouths,” she says. “There’s a case for sharks, which have to maintain movement to keep water flowing through their gills. I was watching a late-night documentary about sharks during a depressive episode, and that really resonated. Just keep moving. So that’s what I do.”
This article was originally published in the September 2026 issue of WALTER Magazine.
