Kelela
From Washington, D.C.
Popularity
Kelela has one upcoming show in the Netherlands: on November 3, 2026 at Paradiso, Amsterdam.
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About
Also known as: Kelela Mizanekristos, Kelela, ከለላ
Kelela built her sound at the intersection of alternative R&B and grime, pulling heavy influence from the UK club scene while being rooted in Washington D.C. Her 2013 mixtape Cut 4 Me introduced that vision to the world, built around the Fade to Mind and Night Slugs production networks and widely credited with helping revive the rhythm and grime subgenre. The mixtape was free to download and felt genuinely experimental, the first time that production crew had put vocals front and centre in their club tracks. From there she kept raising the stakes. Her 2015 EP Hallucinogen told the arc of a relationship in reverse chronological order, and her 2017 debut album Take Me Apart landed to widespread critical acclaim, even making it into 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. After a five year gap she returned with Raven in February 2023, a dense electronic record drawing inspiration from Stevie Wonder, Sun Ra, Drexciya and Aaliyah, among others, with collaborators ranging from NGUZUNGUZU to Toronto DJ BAMBII.
