Anaiis

There's something almost physical about anaiis' music. Like warmth against the skin, a heavy bass moving through the body, and a voice that can feel near and far-reaching at once. Behind the anaiis stands the London-based musician and songwriter whose artistic universe is shaped by a life across countries and cultures.

Born in Toulouse and raised between Dakar, Dublin and Oakland, Anaiis has been inspired from the beginning by both musical icons and literary voices. Names like Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, bell hooks, Alice Walker and Octavia Butler have helped shape her look at music as both a personal and political space.

It's felt in the music, where soft neo-soul grooves and deep, dubbed bass lines meet layered vocals and more electronic textures. With anaiis, there is room for both tenderness and agitation, joy and anger. Her songs revolve around self-acceptance, freedom, love and finding home within oneself - not necessarily as a place, but as a feeling.

On Devotion & The Black Divine from 2025, she examines this very movement with a rare blend of vulnerability, strength and calm. The album was quickly met by international attention and has been streamed more than 20 million times. Devotion & The Black Divine was highlighted as one of the albums of the year by The New Yorker and BBC 6, among others, while The Guardian and Rolling Stone UK, among others, have also praised the release.