London, UK · alt-r&b · uk-garage · dance

Rochelle Jordan

2 upcoming festivals ↓

UK-garage-inflected R&B — Kaytranada's favorite-vocalist energy, silk delivery over broken beats, two-step rhythms under velvet vocals.

Rochelle Jordan was born in Buckinghamshire, England, to British Jamaican parents and moved to Canada at the age of four, growing up mainly in Toronto. She was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia at two and was hospitalized frequently as a child. At sixteen she began posting YouTube covers of R&B songs, inspired by hearing Justin Bieber.

Producer KLSH discovered her through those videos in 2009, and the two worked together on her first mixtape, Alien Phase, in 2010. She followed it with Rojo in 2011 and Pressure in 2012, building an independent following before signing a record deal.

Her music sits between R&B and UK dance forms, a light, precise vocal style laid over two-step garage, house and drum and bass. She has worked with producers including KLSH and Machinedrum, and her records keep the songwriting rooted in contemporary R&B even as the productions push toward club tempos.

She moved to Los Angeles and wrote her debut album, 1021, in her bedroom, releasing it in 2014. Afterward she signed what she has called a toxic record deal and fell into a deep depression while still managing sickle cell anemia. In the final year of that deal she signed to Young Art, the label imprint run by producer Tokimonsta.

After a seven-year hiatus, Jordan released her second album, Play with the Changes, in 2021, followed by a third, Through the Wall, in September 2025. Through the Wall was shortlisted for the 2026 Polaris Music Prize, and its song "The Boy" was longlisted for the SOCAN Polaris Song Prize.

Read more

alt-r&buk-garagedance