Mahalia

R&B is full of tributes to Dionysian bacchanalia, but for Mahalia, healthy boundaries are just as sexy. As she slinks through her sweltering, dancehall-tinged neo-soul, the British-Jamaican artist prioritises her feelings and independence above all, using sharply observed lyrics to shrug off exes and ask for space from new partners. “I feel most loved when my boyfriend runs me a bath and cooks dinner,” she tells Apple Music, in reference to her track “Good Company”, a trunk-rattling jam about inviting a guy over just to hang out. The singer (born Mahalia Burkmar in Leicestershire in 1998) has been writing music since she was a kid. She signed her first major-label deal when she was just 13 and made her first big impact on the R&B landscape with her 2017 single “Sober”, a silky-smooth farewell to a fling that wasn’t meant to be. She brings the same confidence to her 2019 album, Love and Compromise, using the breezy hooks of highlights like “I Wish I Missed My Ex” to set a deservedly high bar for romantic standards.