Patricia Bahia

A contemporary pop singer/songwriter known for her uplifting, encouraging songs, lifelong musician Patricia Bahia was inspired to leave her career in law to write and record songs following a cancer diagnosis in 2003. She eventually released a solo EP in 2010 before making her full-length debut with Save Your Heart in 2015. A year later, Bahia formed the duo 7th & Hope with fellow singer/songwriter Betty Lawrence and found quick success with licensing songs like "What You Waiting For?" and "Luh, Luh, Love It" for television and film. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Patricia Bahia Nieuwenhuizen took dance, piano, and voice lessons as a child in addition to playing the clarinet and singing in choirs. A founding member of the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir, she appeared as a backing vocalist on Linda Ronstadt's 1989 album Cry Like a Rainstorm - Howl Like the Wind. She later graduated from an honors program at the University of Texas at Austin and went on to law school at the UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. While working as an attorney in the Bay Area, she performed as a jazz singer at night, including a residency at Café Claude. In 2003, Bahia received a cancer diagnosis that spurred her to begin writing songs. She quit law and started playing piano again, then started learning guitar and performing locally as a singer/songwriter. With a mind toward uplifting, positive material, she released a solo EP, Long Road Home, on Dream Songs Records in 2010. A few years later, while working on her first full-length release, she co-wrote several songs for the duo Sleep Machine that were picked up for TV programs including ABC's Quantico and TV Land's Younger. Her self-released debut album, Save Your Heart, followed in late 2015. Bahia soon teamed up with British singer/songwriter Betty Lawrence to form 7th & Hope, a project that enjoyed much success with film, television, and ad placements, including several members of MTV's Teen Mom franchise. In 2018, she was co-writer of two songs that were featured in the film The Price of Silence, and multiple 7th & Hope songs were included in episodes of the Netflix reality series Selling Sunset beginning in 2019. In the meantime, Bahia had earned a Master of Music in Commercial Music from California State University and worked as a singing and songwriting coach in addition to teaching voice and music business at the university level. She took home the Grand Prize at the Peace Song Awards and won her fifth and sixth Positive Music Awards in 2020.
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