Celeste

British singer-songwriter Celeste Epiphany Waite, known simply as Celeste, brought together British soul with bluesy jazz and R&B melodies. Born May 5, 1994 in Culver City, California, to an English mother and a Jamaican father, she moved to Britain with her mother when she was three. As a young girl she was exposed to soul and jazz greats such as Aretha Franklin and Ella Fitzgerald and in her teens began to shift her interest to the likes of Thelonious Monk, Koyo Taylor and Sun Ra. Meanwhile, her vocal talents were being shaped in church and she was writing in her spare time. By the time she arrived in college she had opted to pursue music, and outside of school she was playing with friends and covering the likes of Sly & the Family Stone, The Clash, The Specials, Janis Joplin, The Moody Blues, Thelonious Monk, Ray Charles and Alice Coltrane. Her debut single, “Daydreaming”, came out in October 2016, and then her debut EP The Milk & the Honey the following March. In 2018 Celeste made the move to Polydor Records and released the EP Lately, featuring collaborations with the Gotts Street Park collective. In 2019 Celeste won the BRITs' first Rising Star award and put out Compilation 1.1, a collection of everything she had released to date. January 2020 saw her release the single “Stop This Flame”, and enjoy a number 1 UK pop hit as part of Live Lounge Allstars with “Times Like These”. Her debut album, Not Your Muse, came out in 2021.