iyla

Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Iyla merges R&B vocals with understated production in a style that echoes H.E.R. and Victoria Monet. Her career began in the early 2010s inside an R&B trio, after which she moved into electronic dance music by contributing guest vocals to several tracks, most prominently the 2013 hit “Walking on Air.” Late in 2018 she issued her first official project, War + Raindrops, which included the single “Juice.”

Originally known as Bella Blue, she sang with the R&B trio Fine Chynah between 2011 and 2012. Striking out alone, she shifted toward electronic dance anthems, first working as a session vocalist and then securing featured appearances on James Sky’s “Catch the World,” Tony Igy’s “Run Away,” m-flo’s “Devotion” and “Own the Sky,” and Anise.K’s “Walking on Air,” the last of which also featured Snoop Dogg and reached number one throughout Europe. She further appeared on Ian Thomas’s “The Way It Feels,” whose relaxed, alternative atmosphere shaped her subsequent solo direction. Reintroducing herself as Iyla Blue, she dropped “Go There” in 2016 and began recording her proper debut, drawing on longtime influences Patti LaBelle, Diana Ross, and Adele. The resulting album War + Raindrops arrived in October 2018 via 3T Entertainment/Astra Velum/Empire and carried the singles “Shampoo” and “Juice.”