London, UK · alt-pop · orchestral

Labrinth

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The Euphoria score come to life — falsetto gospel-pop maximalism, orchestral drama built by one of pop's most in-demand studio minds.

Labrinth is the stage name of Timothy McKenzie, born in 1989 and raised in Hackney, London, in a Jamaican family of nine children filled with the sound of black gospel music. He and his siblings formed a band called Mac 9, and his older brother Mac introduced him to studio production at fifteen, before he ever thought of himself as a singer.

He signed to Simon Cowell's Syco Music in 2010, first working as a producer and collaborator with the rapper Tinie Tempah on "Pass Out" and "Frisky" before releasing his own debut single, "Let the Sun Shine." His debut album, Electronic Earth, reached number two on the UK Albums Chart in 2012 and produced four top-five singles, including "Beneath Your Beautiful," his first US Hot 100 entry.

His sound pairs pop songwriting with hip-hop production and a high, gospel-influenced falsetto, carried through singles such as "Jealous" and into the trio LSD, formed with Sia and Diplo in 2018. As a producer and writer he has worked with Beyoncé, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Kanye West and the Weeknd, earning a Grammy nomination for his work on the Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness.

Much of his recent visibility comes from scoring HBO's Euphoria from 2019 onward, work built on choral textures, distorted synths and orchestral swells that introduced his voice to a considerably larger audience. The scores brought him multiple Emmy nominations, including one win, and songs co-written with Zendaya such as "I'm Tired" and "Elliot's Song."

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alt-poporchestral