after the girl group soundgirl split, bizu won an open mic night competition in february 2013 winning over the crowd, which included emeli sande and naughty boy, who were in attendance. she released her first independent ep, "coolbeanz", in september 2013, which debuted at number 3 on the itunes soul and rnb chart and has sold 50,000 copies. the ep’s lead single, "white tiger", was also chosen as zane lowe’s ‘next hype’. in october 2013, she supported sam smith on his uk tour, and in november jamie cullum handpicked her to open for him at the roundhouse in london.