NAO

Nao is one of the most distinctive modern R&B singers, a jazz-trained soprano whose hallmark fluttering upper register is complemented with a sneaky-smooth lower register. She was content to remain in the background and teach singing until the mid-2010s, when she and fellow producers such as GRADES, LOXE, and A.K. Paul began to cook up a mix of airy ballads and off-center grooves that sounded progressive and accessible yet willfully out of step with commercial sounds. Terming her hybrid sound "wonky funk," she gained a foothold in 2015 with a pair of well-received EPs and a featured role on Disclosure's "Superego." She was already a MOBO nominee by the time she hit the Top 20 of the U.K. album chart with For All We Know, a full-length debut that led to BBC Sound of 2016 and Brit Awards nominations. Saturn (2018), no sophomore slump, was nominated for the Mercury Prize and a Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Since topping the U.K. R&B chart with the emotionally complex And Then Life Was Beautiful (2021), she has issued Jupiter (2025), a light-seeking sequel to her second LP.

From 🇬🇧 United Kingdom