My name's Nabihah Iqbal, otherwise known as Throwing Shade.
I'm a DJ, producer, and NTS Radio presenter from London.
I've lived here my whole life, and I love this city,
but things seem to be changing.
Last year, a massive 323,000 emigrated from Britain,
and with spiralling costs of living, contrasting with better quality of life elsewhere,
it's easy to see why.
I'm visiting Lisbon and Leipzig
two cities which have burgeoning music and art scenes.
I want to see whether they can offer me the same kind of life as London does,
but in a more affordable way.
Will I ever relocate there permenantly?
So far, I've been exploring Leipzig's vibrant art and design communities.
Now I'm trying to find the city's underground music scene
which is a lot harder than it sounds.
It's been harder to find people involved,
especially in the music scene here.
It seems like people are a little bit more apprehensive about speaking so freely
about all their activities that are going on here.
People were open to talk, just not in front of the camera.
It was pretty disheartening as I know there is a massive scene
in Leipzig through my own connections and research.
A few people I spoke with mentioned a recent New York Times article
that claimed Leipzig as the new Berlin.
It didn't go down well.
The creative community in Leipzig wants to protect what they've built
from the gentrification that has already taken over other cities.
After several tries, I finally found someone willing to speak with me,
Charlotte, who is a DJ and producer.
How is the music scene in Leipzig for you?
- I was before, in Berlin
and a lot of different cities in Germany
and I never met such a nice circle of people.
So if somebody like me or another musician was going to
move here from London, what would you say to them?
- I would say come here! For sure.
Really, if you have some people you already know,
it's really nice and easy to come here.
- And how is it for girls who are DJing or making music?
- I'm in a group called Girlz Edit.
We are organising little parties, we're trying to do DJing workshops
or DJ stuff to kind of, help female musicians to come into the scene.
Meeting Charlotte has really helped me understand the ethos behind Leipzig.
You need to work really hard to integrate yourself into the community,
but once you're in, people are really collaborative and encouraging.
The people power here is something I didn't find in Lisbon.
and it's really inspiring to see.
Charlotte invited me to a night that only Leipzig insiders know about.
You only find out about these kind of events through word of mouth,
and I can't wait to check it out.
Charlotte's set was really great.
The atmosphere at the party was like nothing I've ever been to.
The energy and the people was something so fresh.
This city keeps on surprising me.
I've come to the end of my trip now,
and it's been a really insightful time
I feel really lucky to have been able to go on this trip,
and visit both Lison and Leipzig,
having the chance to speak to so many different people in both places,
and see all the amazing art and music that they're creating.
Obviously, in Lisbon, the weather was so nice, and I could totally
just, by myself, getting accustomed to the sunshine every day,
and being by the beach
I might actually opt for Leipzig,
and that's because I could totally see myself coming out here
and just trying to devote myself to my music, and seeing how productive I could be.
It's made me realise that London isn't the only place in the world.
Relocating seemed like something I would never be able to do
at the beginning of this journey,
It's clear a lot of young people are taking a leap of faith,
and I might just follow them too.