Nao

Neo Jessica Joshua found satisfaction staying behind the scenes as a vocal instructor until the mid-2010s, when she and her creative partners started shaping a blend of light, emotional ballads with unconventional rhythms that felt forward-thinking and approachable while deliberately diverging from mainstream trends. Labeling this fusion “wonky funk,” the highly accomplished singer, composer, and beatmaker secured her place under the name Nao during 2015 through two warmly received EPs plus a standout appearance on Disclosure’s Caracal. Already recognized with a MOBO nomination, she issued her first full-length, the U.K. Top 20 album For All We Know, which earned her a spot on the BBC Sound of 2016 shortlist and a Brit Award nod for Best British Female Solo Artist. Prestigious placements on the series Insecure, where two tracks featured, along with guest spots on releases by Chic, set the stage for the 2018 arrival of Saturn, which received Mercury Prize consideration and a Grammy nomination in the Best Urban Contemporary Album category. Her third album, And Then Life Was Beautiful, reached the summit of the U.K. R&B Albums chart in 2021. She resurfaced in 2023 via the Skillibeng-assisted track “Balance.”

Originally from Nottingham and raised in East London, she took up piano as a child and began serious vocal study in her early teens. She trained in vocal jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, then spent several years instructing singers in South London after completing her studies. As part of the vocal collective the Boxettes she wrote and recorded material, joined Shlomo’s Vocal Orchestra for a Glastonbury appearance, and contributed backing vocals on various sessions before stepping forward as a solo act. Uploads to SoundCloud in 2014 drew industry attention, yet she chose to launch her own imprint, Little Tokyo, issuing the So Good EP in October of that year, whose title track and lead single featured A.K. Paul. Shortly after Mura Masa dropped their joint cut “Firefly” in May 2015, she followed with the second Nao EP, February 15. Its sleek, forward-leaning, and sometimes shadowy textures invited ready parallels to artists such as FKA twigs and Kelela, while her voice—youthful yet conveying maturity—frequently evoked a young Deniece Williams. Within months she returned to Glastonbury fronting her own band, added background vocals to Kwabs’ “Make You Mine,” and joined Disclosure on Caracal as co-writer and lead voice on “Superego.” By year’s end she earned a MOBO nomination for Best Newcomer and secured major-label support from RCA, which issued the Grades collaboration “Bad Blood.”

In 2016 she played Glastonbury once more and dropped her debut album, For All We Know, in July. It entered the U.K. chart at number 17 and brought further recognition, including another BBC Sound of... shortlisting and a Brit Award nomination for Best British Female Solo Artist. Her 2017 output stayed modest, consisting of the remix collection For All We Know: The Remixes and the polished single “Nostalgia,” while the deeper cut “Feels Like” appeared on the season-two soundtrack of Insecure. A run of singles that encompassed the SiR duet “Make It Out Alive” (later used in Insecure’s third season), a cover of Teena Marie’s “I Need Your Lovin’” for the Uncle Drew soundtrack, and a turn on Chic’s It’s About Time paved the way for the October 2018 release of Saturn. That project earned a Mercury Prize nomination and a Grammy nod for Best Urban Contemporary Album. Singles began surfacing again in 2020 with the Lianne La Havas collaboration “Woman,” culminating in the September 2021 arrival of And Then Life Was Beautiful, which topped the U.K. R&B Albums chart. After a quieter stretch, Nao re-emerged in August 2023 with the hypnotic Skillibeng-assisted single “Balance.”