Kehlani Ashley Parrish is an Oakland-born R&B and neo-soul singer-songwriter who turned a childhood of hardship into one of the most compelling careers in contemporary music. After finishing fourth on America's Got Talent as a teen, surviving homelessness, and years of near-misses with mainstream recognition, she finally broke through with 'Folded' - a Grammy-winning hit that charted in the top 10 for 33 weeks in 2026 and led to her landmark self-titled album. Known for radical emotional honesty, political outspokenness, and a voice that channels Brandy and Erykah Badu simultaneously, Kehlani has become both a commercial force and a genuine cultural touchstone for queer communities and R&B lovers worldwide.
Khamari is a Boston-raised, Los Angeles-based R&B and neo-soul singer-songwriter known for his deeply intimate, guitar-driven sound and confessional lyricism. A multi-instrumentalist who started violin at age 4 and briefly attended Berklee College of Music, he drove cross-country alone to chase his vision in LA. After releasing his debut EP 'Eldorado' in 2019 and signing to RCA Records, he dropped his critically acclaimed debut album 'A Brief Nirvana' in 2023 before leaving the major label over creative differences. His sophomore album 'To Dry a Tear' (2025) on independent Encore Recordings marked a major artistic breakthrough - earning him festival slots at Governors Ball 2026 and All Points East 2026, headlining tours across dozens of cities, and comparisons to Frank Ocean, D'Angelo, and Jeff Buckley.
Natanya Popoola is a British-Caribbean-Nigerian singer, songwriter, and producer from North-West London whose music fuses R&B, alt-pop, neo-soul, jazz, and Caribbean influences into what she calls an 'unboxable' sound. Born September 5, 2002 to an Indo-Trinidadian mother and Nigerian father, she trained at the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy, earned a degree in English Literature at UCL, and released her debut EP 'Sorrow At Sunrise' in 2023. Her 2025 EP 'Feline's Return' (via Human Re-Sources, co-produced with Oscar Scheller) earned co-signs from SZA, Doechii, Tyler, The Creator, and Janet Jackson, a BBC Radio 1 premiere, and features on Billboard's '15 Hip-Hop, Caribbean and R&B Artists to Watch in 2026.' Her alter ego 'Feline' - a catlike seductress with a signature cat-eye - anchors a fiercely self-directed creative vision that has drawn comparisons to early-era SZA while carving out entirely new territory.
Olivia Dean is a British soul-pop and jazz-influenced singer-songwriter from North-East London who won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards in February 2026. Her second album 'The Art of Loving' (September 2025) debuted at UK #1 and spawned the monster hit 'Man I Need' - a song that spent 19 consecutive weeks at UK #1, peaked at US Billboard Hot 100 #2, and surpassed one billion Spotify streams. Rooted in the soul traditions of Lauryn Hill, Sade, and Amy Winehouse, Dean writes with disarming emotional clarity about love, identity, and self-worth. She is currently on 'The Art of Loving Live' world tour, which kicked off in Glasgow in April 2026.
SZA (born Solána Imani Rowe) is the St. Louis-raised, New Jersey-grown R&B and neo-soul artist who rewrote Billboard history with SOS - the longest-charting album of the 2020s and the first to break Michael Jackson's Thriller record on the R&B chart. A former elite gymnast and marine biology student, she became Top Dawg Entertainment's first female signee and has accumulated Grammy Awards across multiple ceremonies, culminating in Record of the Year at the 68th Grammys for 'luther' with Kendrick Lamar. Her SOS album spent 100 weeks at No. 1 on the Top R&B Albums chart, and she co-headlined the 2025 Grand National Tour (grossing $358.7M) and the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
Yel (채옐) is a Korean-Singaporean singer-songwriter and bedroom-pop artist based between California and Seoul. Growing up in Singapore before moving to the University of California, Irvine, she began releasing lo-fi R&B sketches on SoundCloud in 2020 and has since built a devoted following through a string of intimate, memory-soaked EPs. Her 2025 breakthrough project Perfect Blue - described by OnesToWatch as 'sticky, sultry' and landing her a spot on their Top 30 Artists to Watch in 2026 - cements her as one of the most exciting emerging voices in love-spell R&B and sultry bedroom-pop.