Makenzie

MaKenzie first rose to prominence as a powerhouse vocalist during the fifteenth season of The Voice, where her command of classic R&B received a contemporary update. After departing the program in 2018 with ambitions of carrying forward the legacy of Mariah Carey and Kelly Clarkson, she instead pivoted toward electronically tinged pop, a shift that crystallized with the confident 2024 release A Pretty Fucking Cool EP and its lead single “Lips.”

Born in Wallingford, Kentucky, MaKenzie Thomas made her initial foray into the industry by auditioning for Season 14 of The Voice, where she failed to turn any chairs. She spent the following year refining her skills through gospel performances with Elevated Praise before returning for Season 15, this time aligning with Jennifer Hudson’s team and advancing as far as the semifinals.

Her recording career began with a late-2018 version of the holiday standard “Silent Night,” followed by “Something Beautiful” the next year. Early 2020 brought a cover of “Love on the Brain,” after which she dropped her surname for the single “Let It Burn,” one of four tracks issued that year alongside “Naked,” “Always Remember Us This Way,” and “If I Were Your Woman.” Early 2021 saw strong streaming numbers for her Supremes cover “You Can’t Hurry Love,” though the performance did not appear on the year-end album Love, MaKenzie.

Following a period of relative quiet in 2022 and 2023, MaKenzie resurfaced in 2024 with “Maybe,” the first in a run of polished singles that refreshed her pop-R&B sound through electronic textures and new-wave attitude. The collection, which also contained “LIPS” and “Velvet,” was compiled on A Pretty Fucking Cool EP; the project further included “Cashmere,” a track indebted to Prince despite bearing no sonic resemblance to his 1993 release “Pink Cashmere.”