Meg Mac

A keen instrument indeed, Meg Mac’s voice benefits from intuitive calibration even when it’s surging with emotion. When the Sydney native (born Megan McInerney in 1990) found her last name tricky to pronounce as a young child, her mother reframed it as a song. That inciting spark led to formal vocal lessons from age nine—alongside learning piano—and Mac attended a performing-arts school before continuing to study music at the university level. All that perfecting of her voice paid off when she cracked the Australian Top 40 with 2015’s blues-shaded “Never Be”, which earned repeated comparisons to Adele. Further flexing her natural affinity for soul, Mac updated Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands” with minimalistic electronic backing on her first EP and supported D’Angelo on tour in the US. While she recorded most of her 2017 debut LP Low Blows in that country as well, she notably cut the powerful vocals for “Brooklyn Apartment (It’s Louder Than the TV and the Radio)” in the intimacy of her Melbourne bedroom. The 2019 mini-album HOPE bolstered her expansive presence, with the stirring opener “Give Me My Name Back” dedicated to anyone who’s endured abuse or discrimination in whatever form.