Lulu James

Born near Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Lulu James grew up in South Shields, a town in North East England, where her commanding presence as a vocalist took shape inside a dark electronic soul framework. An early credit arrived when she featured on the 2010 garage single “In Your Soul” by Aleks Zen, yet her voice only achieved its full force after she began working with Dom Zilla, a producer, fellow songwriter, and tutor from her music course. During 2012 she released two sinuous, hypnotic singles—“Rope Mirage,” which appeared in April on her own imprint, and “Be Safe,” issued in November through Black Butter and produced by Hostage & Kidnap Kid. The next year, now under contract with RCA in the U.K., she delivered “Closer,” a polished dancefloor cut whose dramatic sweep matched that of the earlier A-sides.