Kelela is a singer and songwriter hailing from Washington D.C, United States who was born in 1983. Since her debut in 2010 she has released one mixtape along with one EP, becoming one of the most exciting acts in alternative R&B in the process.
There are very few genres which Kelela Mizanekristos haven't tried her hand at singing. She's sang jazz standards in coffee shops, sang indie rock with the band Dizzy Spells and even tried her hand at progressive metal after fell in with Animals As Leaders guitarist Tosin Abasi. However, after relocating to Los Angeles, California in 2010, she found her niche singing an esoteric spin on modern day R&B. After she moved to L.A, one of the key contacts she made was with the group Teengirl Fantasy, and while singing on their debut album “Tracer”, she met one of the execs from their label Fade To Mind. After striking up a friendship with him, he introduced her to the sounds of Fade To Mind's sister imprint Night Slugs, a London based label specialising in the most interesting and out their sounds in U.K dance music.
Inspired by what she was hearing coming out of the U.K, she started incorporating influences of it into her music, and in October 2013, she released her debut mixtape “Cut 4 Me” for free onto the internet. It ended being one of the most acclaimed independent releases of the year, hailed by both critics and contemporaries like Solange Knowles and Björk. Ever since then, she's remained one of the most exciting R&B artists to come along in a very long time. With a new EP coming up in the form of “Hallucinogen”, and a debut studio album coming afterwards, Kelela is an artist with the world at her feet. For that, she comes highly recommended.
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