Uwade

You’ve heard Uwade before. It’s her honeyed voice that opens Fleet Foxes’ 2020 record Shore — an experience that’s since earned her global critical acclaim. Though her career in music is now taking off, for Uwade, 21, singing has always been a kind of prayer. This stems, in part, from her spiritual upbringing —  steeped in the sounds of hymnal choral music and Nigerian Highlife on her dad’s car radio — and her rigorous education. A scholar of the highest order, Uwade has studied Classics at Columbia and Oxford, and cites Catullus and Virgil among her influences (along with Julian Casablancas and Nina Simone). Knowing this, it’s easy to want to plumb the academic depths of her sound. To describe her voice as a divine signal you’d read about in classic texts, at once ancient and altogether new.