Summer Walker

Summer Walker isn’t big on diaries or therapy. Instead, the low-key R&B powerhouse finds solace in the studio, where angst, lust and self-doubt morph into mesmerising confessionals. For Walker, putting it all out there is healing: “Pro Tools sessions are my diary pages,” she tells Apple Music in Up Next: Summer Walker, the documentary film about her ascent. “That’s why a lot of my songs are emotional.” As a child growing up in Atlanta (where she was born in 1996), Walker would wait until her mum went to bed before going into the bathroom to record videos of herself singing songs and playing guitar. When she posted those clips on social media, the reaction was immediate—she had something. Her songwriting style—which she explored on her first two releases, Last Day of Summer and CLEAR—is both mysterious and bare-bones; the more she reveals about her heart and mind, the more captivating she becomes. “I don’t really need the pain/But I love to feel the pain,” she admits on “Deep”, a song that wrestles to distinguish between sex and love. To listen is to witness Walker working it all out in real time. Summer continued sorting through her feelings with subsequent projects. For 2021's Still Over It, she explores all the dimensions of relationship drama, whether she's teaming up with City Girls for an upbeat anti-ex anthem ("Ex For A Reason") or lamenting social media messiness ("Bitter"). For CLEAR 2: SOFT LIFE, Summer distances herself from petty drama even as she reckons with romantic dysfunction. Tracks like "How Does It Feel" see her dealing with someone who treats her love "like an option". Floating over tranquil instrumentation for "Finding Peace", she sounds like she's found it. In a tumultuous world, she might not always be able to, but her fans will always return to watch her try.