Bobby Oroza Shares Video for Earl Sweatshirt-Sampled 'This Love': Premiere - Billboard

Bobby Oroza has no problem if the world sees him as "a lover soul dude," and the sultry video for the Finnish singer's single "This Love," premiering exclusively below, certainly bolsters that image.

"I love that stuff -- old cars, vintage stuff, suits," Oroza tells Billboard. "I don't mind if that's the way people see me at all. I think the emotions in my songs, the love emotions, are universal, so I don't feel the need to define myself or what we're doing at all. It's for other people to categorize me and put a nametag on it. I'm just making my music and enjoying it to the fullest."

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"This Love" will be part of Oroza's album of the same name, coming out May 3. But the song itself has already racked up a history; It came out during 2016, the first fruits of Oroza's deal with Finland’s Timmion Records and the production duo Cold Diamond & Mink. "We realized we were all into the same stuff and had some similar (musical) references," recalls Oroza, who comes from a family of musicians in Finland, Cuba and Bolivia and was a percussion player and teacher before stepping out front. "This Love" became an underground hit in Scandinavia, and was also sampled by Earl Sweatshirt on his track "Hat Trick."

"It was a bit of a leap to go from being an instrumentalist to start using my own voice on records," Oroza acknowledges. "But now it's feeling a lot more comfortable. It's about finding your own voice. You don't have to be a virtuoso or anything. I'm a specialist in my own style. It's what feels natural and right for me to sing, and I'm sure I’ll grow and do different things as time goes on. I'm just totally fixed on being a singer now and seeing where I can go. It's been very interesting -- and challenging."

Oroza moves to New York's Big Crown Records with the This Love album, and he plans to make the U.S. a priority territory once the album comes out, and after a spring tour in Europe with labelmate Lee Fields & the Expressions. "I'm definitely working on it," Oroza says. "Last fall we spent a few weeks in New York to get a feel of the whole atmosphere. The hunger is really building to come over, and we'll be there this year. I can't wait."

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