Kelela Mizanekristos. Second-generation Ethiopian American singer, born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Gaithersburg, Maryland. Her sound sits between the club and the bedroom: futuristic R&B and UK-bass textures carrying intimate, deliberately unhurried vocals. She arrived with the 2013 mixtape Cut 4 Me on Fade to Mind, then signed to Warp for Take Me Apart (2017), which made the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and Raven (2023), which scored 86 on Metacritic and was named Resident Advisor's album of the year. 'Happy Ending', produced by LSDXOXO and Bambii, was the second single from Raven, out in October 2022. Kelela has called the album an affirmation of her perspective as a Black femme artist in dance music. After the live album In the Blue Light (2025), her third studio album, new avatar, came out in July 2026 on Warp.
From the notes for EKHO Sonic Chill #4 · fact-checked Oct 4, 2026.
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