Emanuel

Emanuel Assefa, who performs under the streamlined name Emanuel, works as an R&B singer and songwriter. His first major-label project arrived in 2020 via the intense ballad “Need You.” That April, Universal Music issued the track in his home country of Canada, where actor Idris Elba helped expand its reach by asking followers on social media to submit photos and footage depicting their personal responses to the COVID-19 pandemic; those materials were intended for a montage set to the song. Contributions arrived by the thousands from every corner of the globe, allowing Emanuel and director Matt Di Carlo to finish and post the official video just ten days after the audio became available on streaming platforms. “Need You” was subsequently included on the four-track Alt Therapy Session 1: Disillusion EP. By year’s end another EP of matching length, Alt Therapy Session 2: Transformation, had also been released.