Celeste Essentials

Celeste Waite may have emerged from the retro-soul boom, but her sound reaches far beyond facile comparisons to Aretha Franklin and Dusty Springfield. Born in the United States and raised in a village near Brighton, where she spent her youth exploring the arts, including church singing, Celeste draws from a breadth of styles: vintage jazz, orchestral pop, even downtempo. Her debut EP, 2017’s The Milk & the Honey, wraps her smoky voice in moody electronic textures; 2020’s “Hear My Voice”, featured in the movie The Trial of the Chicago 7, recasts her as a gospel-inspired powerhouse delivering enduring messages of equality and liberation.