R&B is gaining reputation once again, and on this list, you will find the famous top 10 best female R&B artists of 2024. R&B is not dead as some may think. It’s being reborn on again and even hotter. This list provides features from young, up-and-coming female R&B acts. All of them have achieved mainstream recognition for their smooth and chill music.
1. Ella Mai
Ella Mai is a British vocalist and songwriter from London, England. The artiste signed to DJ Mustard’s label 10 Summers Records back in 2014. Her EP’s include Change, Time, and Ready. Her debut studio album, Ella Mai, was published in October 2018 and starred the single “Boo’d Up,” which was later released on February 20, 2018.
“Boo’d Up” began to create some buzz, and on 26 April of 2018, Ella Mai then published a music video. The single ultimately became her first top ten songs in the US, giving Ella Mai her big break. and the following month, Rolling Stone addressed that the single is “one of the greatest singles by a breakout female R&B singer in the prior 10 years.”
The single topped at number five on the US Billboard Hot 100 and also broke the record for the most weeks at No. 1 of any song by a lady on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart.
Ella Mai – Boo’d Up (Official Music Video)
2. Teyana Taylor
Teyana Taylor signed to Kanye West’s GOOD Music and earned recognition when she starred on Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. The rapper did the choreography for Beyoncé’s hit single, “Ring the Alarm.“
In February of 2008, Taylor released her première single, called “Google Me.“ The song spread at number 90 on the US Billboard‘s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs. In early 2014 she released her debut of VII studio album which then debuted at number 19 on the Billboard 200.
In 2018 Teyana Taylor officially released her album K.T.S.E.(Keep That Same Energy). the song was was recorded as part of Kanye West’s Wyoming Sessions. It was a part of Kanye West’s five album weekly release.
Claire Lobenfeld of Pitchfork deemed that K.T.S.E. is “long overdue, but the album continues to be too small a platform for her tremendous vocal talent”, praising Teyana Taylor’s performance whose “singing sounds luxurious but simple” and “sticky and seductive.”
Here is Teyana Taylor – Gonna Love Me (Remix) ft. Ghostface Killah, Raekwon Method Man, (Music Video)
3. H.E.R.
H.E.R. (AKA Having Everything Revealed), is a singer-songwriter from Vallejo, California, US. She has published five EP’s which include H.E.R. 2 (2017), H.E.R. 1(2016), H.E.R. 2, The B Sides (in 2017), I Used To Know Her: The Prelude(in 2018) and I Used To Know Her: Part 2 (in 2018).
The singer’s first EP H.E.R. Vol. 1, made to iTunes’ Best of 2016 R&B/Soul Albums record, with the track “Losing” making the iTunes top R&B/Soul Singles list. NPR recorded H.E.R. Vol. 1 as the first choice in its “5 Essential R&B Albums You Slept On” roundup. Describing the music as “Slow-burning R&B that zooms in on heartfelt highs and lows.”
Rolling Stone entered H.E.R. in its March 2017 “10 Artists You Need To Know” roundup. And Forbes called her one of “5 Alternative R&B Artists To Look Out For In 2017” declaring that “In the same vein as The Weeknd’s enigmatic opening to the world, H.E.R.’s image remains a puzzle. The irony here, though, is that her moniker is an acronym for Holding Everything Revealed.”
She was chosen in five categories for the 2019 Grammy Awards. They included Album of the Year, Best R&B Performance, Best New Artist, Best R&B Song, and Best R&B Album.
H.E.R. – Focus (The Official Music Video)
4. SZA
SZA (Solána Imani Rowe) self-published her debut EP, See.SZA.Run in October of 2012, which she then shortly followed up with her second EP, titled S, in April 2013. She later released Z, her third EP in April of 2014.
In January 2018, SZA starred with Kendrick Lamar on the track “All the Stars”, which was officially released as the lead single to the soundtrack record of the film Black Panther.
The single album peaked at number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100, and this got SZA’s second top 10 hit on the chart, following Maroon 5, “What Lovers Do” which topped at number 9 on the chart. SZA colluded with Cardi B on the track “I Do” for the album Invasion of Privacy.
Jordan Sargent of Pitchfork magazine marked SZA’s vocals as being “chillwave” and “ethereal”.
SZA – Broken Clocks (The Official Music Video)
5. Jorja Smith
Jorja Smith is a British singer-songwriter from Walsall, West Midland. She has collaborated with artists, including Kali Uchis, Drake, and Stormzy.
In January of 2016, Smith released her official debut single “Blue Lights,” which samples Dizzee Rascal’s top song “Sirens,” on SoundCloud; the song garnered over 400,000 plays on the website within a month.
And she also performed as a special patron on Drake’s Boy Meets World Tour in February and March in 2017. She further featured on two tracks on his mixtape More Life (in 2017).
In 2018, she got the Brit Critics’ Choice Award. Her première studio album, Lost & Found, was published in June 2018 and peaked at number three on the UK Albums Chart.
Jorja Smith – Blue Lights | A COLORS SHOW
6. Jessie Reyez
Jessie Reyezis a Canadian born singer and songwriter. Her 2016 single song “Figures” peaked at position 58 on the Canadian Hot 100 in 2017 and was certified 2× Platinum by Music Canada. In mid 2016, she further released the single “Shutter Island.
She won two 2017 iHeartRadio Much Music Video Awards nominations for the Best New Canadian Artist and Fan Fave Video for her “Shutter Island”.
Jessie Reyez played “Figures” at the 2017 BET Awards on June 25, 2017 and on The Tonight Show featuring Jimmy Fallon on August 8, 2017. “Figures” has also received more than 20 million streams on Spotify alone.
She gained the Juno Award for Breakthrough Artist of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2018. Later on the same year, she won a SOCAN Songwriting Prize nomination for the song “Cotton Candy.”
In August 2018, she colluded with Eminem on “Nice Guy” and “Good Guy“, from the record Kamikaze. She also got two 2018 MTV Video Music Award nominations for the Push Artist of the Year and the Video With a Message for the song “Gatekeeper.”
Jessie Reyez – Figures (The Official Music Video)
7. Kehlani
Kehlani achieved initial recognition as a member of the teen club Poplyfe. In 2014, she published her first commercial mixtape Cloud 19. The mixtape was recorded as one of the Complex‘s “50 Best Albums of 2014.” A song she published in late 2014, “Till the Morning” was set by Billboard as one of the “Emerging selections of the Week” on the November 7, 2014.
In 2015, Kehlani officially released her second commercial mixtape, You Should Be Here. The song debuted at top 5 on the nationwide R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Billboard called it the “year’s first great R&B album”, when it debuted at number 5 on the US Billboard‘s Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
Complex described her one of the “15 Artists to Watch Out for in 2015,” and the Rolling Stone named the songwriter one of the “10 New Artists that You Need to Know.” She was also chosen for a 2016 Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album.
Her song “Gangsta” was starred on the soundtrack for the hit movie Suicide Squad, and reached a good number 41 on the Hot 100.
In 2016, she was chosen for the Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album for You Should Be Here. Kehlani published her first major-label première album, SweetSexySavage on January 27, 2017. She was additionally featured on the Cardi B album track “Ring,” which listed at number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100, making her very first top 40 records on the chart.
Kehlani – Honey (The Official Music Video)
8. Queen Naija
Queen Naija, is a vocalist-songwriter who in December of 2017, released the official song “Medicine.” Even though she was a social media personality who wasn’t signed to any trademark, her song debuted at position forty-five on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of April 10, 2018.
In June 2018, she officially released her second single, “Karma,” this time as a signed artiste to Capitol Records. On its publicity day, the song reached #1 overall on the iTunes music charts.
Queen Naija initially became famous as a participant on the eighth season of American Idol. At just age 17, Queen Naija, then recognized as Queen Bulls, returned to the audition for a second trial after her audition two years earlier did not advance her into the next step. In the eighth season, she then succeeded in her audition and propelled into the Hollywood round, but was cut when the top 30 best were chosen.
Queen Naija started 2018 by releasing the song “Medicine.” In January of 2018, she did an official lyrics & involving an interview with Genius. A month following the song’s release, it continued to spark buzz, attracting the attention of record labels all over the country.
Queen Naija on April 25, 2018, officially signed to Capitol Records. On June 28, 2018, she published her second single, “Karma.” On its official release day, the song reached to #1 overall on the iTunes song charts. “Karma” closed that week as the thirteenth-best seller in the entire United States, therefore taking #13 on the Billboard Digital Songs selling chart. In July 2018, “Karma” grossed at #63 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Queen Naija released her official self-titled EP on July 27, 2018. It consists of five songs: “Medicine,” “Butterflies,” “Karma,” “Mama’s Hand,” and “Bad Boy.” In August 2018, the EP debuted at number #26 on the Billboard 200 and reached #1 on the Apple Music R&B music charts.
Queen Naija – Medicine (The Official Music Video)
9. Kali Uchis
Kali Uchis is a Colombian-American born singer and songwriter. She debuted in the music production industry with her 2012 mixtape, Drunken Babble, which was named as “genre-defying.” She published her first EP, Por Vida, in 2015.
In October 2017, Kali Uchis was chosen for a Latin Grammy Award for Record of the Year for “El Ratico,” her music collaboration with Colombian musician Juanes.
She was likewise nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Show at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards for “Get You”, her music collaboration with Canadian singer Daniel Caesar.
On March 14, 2018, Uchis played on The Tonight Show and stated her debut album, Isolation. Her debut studio album was published in 2018 receiving positive reviews from critics.
Kali Uchis – Just A Stranger ft Steve Lacy (The Official Music Video)
10. Sabrina Claudio
Sabrina Claudio is a Cuban-American based singer-songwriter. Her single song “Unravel Me” peaked at position 22 on the Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists chart, and her single song “Belong to You” peaked at position 2 on the same.
Her debut mixtape, About Time was officially released on October 5, 2017. It peaked at position 13 on Billboard‘s Top R&B Albums chart.
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On April 2, 2018, Claudio officially released the single “All to You” followed by “Don’t Let Me Down” starring Khalid on April 4, from her upcoming debut studio album.
