Born Amanda Ava Koci on February 16, 1993 in Wisconsin to Albanian immigrant parents, Ava Max counts Céline Dion, Whitney Houston, and Mariah Carey among her chief muses. Having found an early mentor in producer Kevin Rudolf, she began recording and writing in his Miami studio at the age of 13. Now LA based and with creative director Brett Alan Nelson on board (Katy Perry, Lana Del Rey, Jason Derulo), the emerging singer/songwriter is currently in the studio with super producer Cirkut (The Weeknd’s “Starboy” and Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball”) working on new music to be released later this year. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.