Kaya Brüel (born 30 August 1972) is a Danish singer, songwriter and actress.
As an 18-year-old, Brüel signed a contract with the record company Replay Records. Brüel received an advance of DKK 20,000 in exchange for releasing three albums on the company. Brüel debuted in 1991 with cover versions of hits from the 60s and 70s on the album Kaya, produced by Jens Rugsted. The album sold 80,000 copies. This was followed by The State I'm In (1992) and Sweet Reality (1995), which could not measure up to the success of the debut album. At the same time, Brüel felt that she had been led astray by the record company, which showed little interest in Brüel's own written songs. In response to the established record industry, Kaya released her fourth album on jazz musician Thomas Blachman's record label ManRec. The jazz and soul album Complex was well received by the music press, but did not become a commercial success. In 2000, she sang the vocals for the trance single Light A Rainbow by Danish Tukan, which in 2001 reached number 38 on the English charts. In 2006, Brüel's Jeg fandt en sang på veje was released as an album of children's songs with music by great-grandfather Axel Brüel to lyrics by Halfdan Rasmussen. The album received a gold record for 15,000 copies sold in 2008. Brüel returned to jazz music on the album The Love List from 2008, which consists of her own compositions and songs from the theater performance Woyzeck with music by Tom Waits.
Brüel has sung several contributions on Danmarks Radio's Oh Abe releases and has voiced several cartoons, including The Jungle Beast Hugo, with which she debuted in 1993, where she voiced the fox Rita. She has also appeared in plays such as The Nutcracker from 2004.
In 2006 she was a judge on the TV show Showtime and on 7 October, she participated in the entertainment program Gu 'Ske Lov Du Kom on TV3. In 2010 she participated in the Dansk Melodi Grand Prix with the song "Only Tonight", which moved on from the preliminary round. Brüel participated in 2011 in Vild med dans with the professional dancer Steen Lund.