Celeste

Born in California yet raised primarily in England by her British mother, the vocalist known as Celeste draws from the legacies of Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday to shape unhurried, jazz-inflected songs distinguished by commanding delivery and introspective words. After surfacing in the late 2010s she put out her initial official release, the three-song The Milk & the Honey (2017), before moving to a major label for the follow-up EP Lately (2019) and the U.K. number-one debut album Not Your Muse (2021).

Soon after her arrival in the United States, Celeste returned with her mother to Essex, where an assortment of colorful individuals and distinctive circumstances helped form her early outlook while the experience of growing up biracial in a largely uniform community added further depth. The pair later settled in Brighton, and regular attendance at church services strengthened her voice through the daily singing of hymns. Outside that setting she developed affinities for Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, the Supremes, Destiny's Child, and Solange. When her father died shortly after she turned sixteen, she later discovered his record collection and absorbed its contents; the poems she had been writing gradually became songs, and during her college years she committed fully to a music career.

Outside academic hours Celeste began playing informally with friends, exploring soul, funk, and jazz material that included covers of Sly & the Family Stone, the Clash, the Specials, the Moody Blues, Alice Coltrane, Janis Joplin, Thelonious Monk, and Ray Charles. Her first public performance showcased that wide-ranging mix, after which momentum quickly built. In 2017 she issued the track “Daydreaming” as part of The Milk & the Honey, released on Lily Allen’s Bank Holiday imprint. The resulting material, rich and atmospheric, reflected her broad array of reference points while echoing the approaches of Alicia Keys, Adele, Erykah Badu, and Floetry.

Several years afterward, the single “Both Sides of the Moon,” recorded with Gotts Street Park (known for work with Kali Uchis and Rejjie Snow), appeared on her 2019 EP Lately (Both Sides/Polydor). That project also contained the Gotts-backed title track and the Jeshi collaboration “Summer.” Early in the next year Celeste released her first single to reach the charts, the uplifting “Stop This Flame,” and received the BRITs’ inaugural Rising Star award. Further releases heightened anticipation for Not Your Muse, which entered the U.K. album chart at number one upon its January 2021 arrival. “To Love a Man,” her initial single after the album, followed in March 2022.