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Kelela synthesizes contemporary R&B and progressive electronic music with an aptitude for prompting club play as much as bedroom listening. The vocalist and songwriter, born Kelela Mizanekristos in Washington, D.C., was raised in suburban Maryland and didn't have aspirations as a singer until she started studying jazz. Subsequent obsessions with Amel Larrieux and Little Dragon helped push her toward finding her own style -- one she found after she moved to Los Angeles in 2010.

Links & Press:

Website
Grounded: the revival of Kelela - Dazed Autumn 2022
‘Why did I feel rusty? White supremacy’: Kelela on writer’s block, outsiderdom and her long-awaited second album
Kelela’s Long-Awaited Return Is So Vulnerable It Scared Her
"Unmistakably Black": Kelela is a liaison between the worlds within dance music
Kelela: “I’m everybody’s favourite secret”
Kelela Wants to Hear Black Music's Truths
Kelela Knows What Intimacy Sounds Like
The Black Femme Renaissance: Kelela Is Making Her Own Rules
Kelela: "Si può tornare alle emozioni più negative e buie del passato per riviverle e cambiarle"
Kelela: Power in Vulnerability
Interview with Kelela about “Raven"
Video Interview w/ Tanya Butler for Triple J Soul
Searching for tenderness with Kelela

In The Blue Light

A Live Performance At The Blue Note

"Nearly a year after her acclaimed RAVE:N, The Remixes, Kelela announces her next project In The Blue Light, a live album capturing a pivotal moment in her career. In May 2024, Kelela shared new arrangements of her work in a series of intimate performances at New York City’s legendary jazz club The Blue Note, creating a one-of-a-kind unplugged experience to sold-out audiences. …
‘In The Blue Light’ is Kelela’s love letter to her musical inspirations and devoted fans." - Bleep

Discography:

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"Raven is the work of a careful observer, proving the R&B artist is just as poignant over ambient, jungle and dancehall, as she is on her more well-trodden terrain....With Raven, Kelela sought to write a record with Black femmes in mind, hoping that her own experiences of healing, of joy, of anger and of love would resonate with them. "I started this process from the feeling of isolation and alienation I've always had as a Black femme in dance music, despite its Black origins," she explained in the album's press release. "Raven is my first breath taken in the dark, an affirmation of Black femme perspective in the midst of systemic erasure and the sound of our vulnerability turned to power."- resident advisor

RAVE:N, The Remixes (2024)

"In the past, Kelela remixes have traditionally split the difference between full-blown reimaginings and particle-collider deconstructions, with the latter tending to represent the more fun but overall weaker tracks in this category .... RAVE:N, on the other hand, is distinct: Each track deepens the aqueous world of the original record." - pitchfork