Aluna

As a vocalist and composer, Aluna Francis forms one half of AlunaGeorge, the U.K. electronic duo launched in 2012, and carries the pair’s aesthetic into her own projects by pushing deeper into wide-ranging dance-pop terrain. Her first solo album, the stylistically wide-ranging Renaissance, surfaced in 2020 and was succeeded over the ensuing years by several singles such as “Forget About Me,” “Nowhere to Hide,” and “Killing Me.”

Francis entered the world in Wales and spent her childhood across both the United States and the United Kingdom before settling in London. Before committing herself to music, she practiced as a reflexologist. In 2007 she launched a sequence of three albums as a featured artist on Earth Leakage Trip’s Research. Two years later her contribution to My Toys Like Me’s debut album Where We Are, a trip-hop-styled release, drew critical notice yet failed to register commercially. Within a short span she and producer George Reid established AlunaGeorge as an active unit. Their appearance on Disclosure’s February 2013 single “White Noise” produced a U.K. number-two hit, while the following month the duo’s own “Attracting Flies” reached the Top 20. That song appeared on their first full-length release, Body Music, which also performed strongly in the U.K. Their broadest international success arrived in 2015 via a DJ Snake remix of “You Know You Like It,” a cut included on the soundtrack to Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Following a second AlunaGeorge album and overtures from Diplo, who ultimately placed her on his Mad Decent imprint as a solo act, Aluna began composing tracks for her debut album. Portions of the recording took place during her pregnancy with her first child, born in November 2019. The initial results emerged in April 2020 with the anthemic house single “Body Pump,” succeeded by four additional singles ahead of Renaissance’s August release, which incorporated work from Princess Nokia and Kaytranada. A standalone piece, “Trouble,” featuring Michael Brun and Alicai Harley, appeared in 2021, followed the next year by the Diplo- and Durante-assisted “Forget About Me.” Subsequent releases included “Mine O’ Mine” with Jayda G and “Nowhere to Hide” with Prettyboy D-O and Kooldrink. Her steady productivity extended into early 2023 with the Skrillex collaboration “Inhale Exhale” and “Killing Me” alongside TSHA.