Neneh Cherry (SE)

About

Also known as: Cherry, Naneh Cherry, Nenah Cherry

Neneh Cherry has always moved between worlds, and her music reflects exactly that. Growing up around jazz, punk, and reggae, she carved out a lane that blended rap, R&B, and pop in ways that felt genuinely new when her debut Raw Like Sushi landed in 1989. "Buffalo Stance" was the record's calling card, hitting number three in the UK and the US Billboard Hot 100, and she performed it on Top of the Pops while visibly pregnant, which caused quite the stir at the time. She never settled into a formula. Her second album Homebrew gave her another dancefloor moment with "Buddy X", and she kept pushing further with Man, Blank Project, and a collaboration with jazz ensemble the Thing called The Cherry Thing. She also helped shape Massive Attack's Blue Lines as an arranger, which speaks to how central she was to the Bristol scene. Her most recent album The Versions came out in 2022, and she has two Brit Awards and an MTV Europe Music Award to her name.