Nao (singer)

Nao

Nao press shot from "So Good" EP
Background information
Birth name Neo Jessica Joshua
Born December 1987 (age 28)[1]
Nottingham, England
Genres
Years active 2014–present
Labels Little Tokyo Recordings

Neo Jessica Joshua, better known as Nao (also styled NAO; /ˈn./), is a British singer-songwriter from East London.[2][3] Her sound has been described as neo soul combined with electronic music and alternative R&B.[2]

Music career

Neo Joshua was born in Nottingham but moved to East London as a young child. She studied vocal jazz at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and went on to be a backing singer for artists such as Kwabs and Jarvis Cocker.[2][4] For six years up to 2014 she sang in an all-girl a cappella group called The Boxettes.[5][6] In October 2014 she released her first EP, So Good, it reached number 4 on the iTunes electronic chart and the title track made the BBC Radio 1 and BBC 1Xtra national playlists in the United Kingdom.[2][3][7] This was followed by a second EP, February 15 (II MMXV), in May 2015,[7] receiving the "Best New Music" tag from Pitchfork Media.

Nao played Glastonbury Festival in June 2015.[4] In September 2015 Nao was named as a nominee for best newcomer at the 2015 MOBO Awards.[8] Nao was a featured vocalist and writer on Disclosure's UK number 1 album, Caracal, on the track "Superego".[9] She was featured in the long list for the BBC Sound of...2016 prize in November 2015, ultimately being named in third place in January 2016.[10]

Discography

Singles

Title Year Album
"So Good" 2014 So Good (EP)
"Zillionaire" February 15 (EP)
"Bad Blood"[11] 2015 TBA
"Fool to Love" 2016

Guest appearances

Title Year Artist(s) Album
"Firefly"[12] 2015 Mura Masa Someday Somewhere
"Superego"[13] Disclosure Caracal

Awards and nominations

Year Organization Category Nominee Result
2016 BBC Sound of 2016[10] NAO Third

References

  1. "Little Tokyo Recordings Limited". Companies House. Retrieved 19 April 2016.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "BBC Music Sound of...2016 - NAO". BBC. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  3. 1 2 "NAO on itunes". Apple iTunes. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  4. 1 2 "Glastonbury 2015". BBC Music. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  5. "The Boxettes, Kings Place". The Arts Desk. 13 January 2012.
  6. "This All-Female Beatbox Group’s Awesome Rudimental Cover Is Anything But Basic". Huffignton Post. 15 August 2014.
  7. 1 2 "New band of the week: Nao". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  8. "Grime and hip-hop artists JME and Krept And Konan dominate Mobo nominations". BBC Newsbeat. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  9. "Caracal by Disclosure". Metacritic. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  10. 1 2 "BBC Music Sound of 2016 longlist - listen to the nominees". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  11. "Bad Blood - Single by NAO". iTunes (UK). Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  12. "Someday Somewhere by Mura Masa". iTunes (UK). Retrieved 10 January 2016.
  13. "Caracal by Disclosure". iTunes (US). Retrieved 10 January 2016.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Tuesday, April 19, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.