Washington, DC · alt-R&B · club

Kelela

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Avant-R&B's velvet futurist — club pressure and whispered intimacy in one voice, every reappearance treated as an event.

Kelela was born Kelela Mizanekristos on June 4, 1983, and grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where she learned violin in fourth grade and sang in her school choir. She graduated from Magruder High School in 2001, later transferring from Montgomery College to American University, and began singing jazz standards at local cafés.

In 2008 she joined the indie band Dizzy Spells, singing progressive metal after meeting guitarist Tosin Abasi, whom she later dated. She moved to Los Angeles in 2010, the city she still calls home alongside London.

There she connected with Teengirl Fantasy, contributing to their 2013 album Tracer, and met Fade to Mind's Prince William, who introduced her to that label and its London sister imprint Night Slugs. She appeared on Kingdom's "Bank Head" before releasing her free mixtape Cut 4 Me later in 2013, its grime-inflected sound credited with reviving the rhythm-and-grime tag; "Go All Night" from the tape later appeared on Solange's Saint Heron compilation.

The Hallucinogen EP (2015) traced a relationship's end, middle and beginning in reverse order across songs including "A Message" and "Rewind". Take Me Apart, her debut album, followed in 2017 to critical acclaim; she also guested on records by Clams Casino, Danny Brown, Solange and Gorillaz. A five-year gap preceded her second album, Raven (2023), and a third, New Avatar (2026).

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