Kelela

Kelela Bio

Kelela Mizanekristos (June 4, 1983), widely known as Kelela, is an R&B singer and songwriter from Washington, D.C. and of Ethiopian descent. The now 30 year old grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, pursuing her love for music by performing jazz tunes at local cafes. In 2008, she joined Dizzy Spells, an progressive metal indie band, for two years then moved to Los Angeles to go full-time on her music. Upon her arrival in LA, Kelea contacted Teengirl Fantasy and was given the opportunity to work on their track, ‘EFX’. Her work with Teengirl Fantasy led her to meeting artists such as Kingdom, who featured her on his track, ‘Bank Head’. Kelela’s debut as a musician was in 2013, releasing mixtape ‘Cut 4 Me’, a grime influenced alternative R&B album. Kelela’s track from the album, ‘Go All Night’ was featured on Saint Heron, a compilation album of various artists by Solange Knowles. In 2015, Kelela released her first EP, ‘Hallucinogen’ followed by her debut studio album, ‘Take Me Apart’ in 2017. The album produced a number of her top hits such as ‘Frontline’, ‘LML’ and ‘Waitin’. Kelela states in an interview with Vulture that she was “trying to create a synthesis” in her newest album compared to her previous work. Her debut album was raved about by many music platforms such as Vulture, Pitchfork and The Fader. “Equal parts sexy and mercurial, expansive and intimate” as said by Vulture and “What makes Take Me Apart so stunning is its meticulous attention to detail, with new layers revealing themselves on the third or 37th listen. Its sonorous breadth is mesmerizing.” With the success of the album, Kelela released a remix version of her debut album titled ‘Take Me A_Part, The Remixes’ featuring Kaytranada, Princess Nokia, LSDXOXO and Santa Muerte amongst many others. Her top single, ‘Rewind’ from her Hallucinogen album has 10 million plays on Spotify followed by ‘LMK’ has 9 million plays.