Libianca wrote her 2022 single “People”—a song about her struggles with the mood disorder cyclothymia—on Thanksgiving night, after spending most of a party crying in the bathroom. Her emotive voice and plaintive, heart-wrenching hook (“Did you check on me?”) helped the song resonate with an audience still reeling from the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, propelling it to the upper reaches of charts around the world. Libianca may have become a star virtually overnight, but her success comes after a decade of hard work, including seven years as a professional singer and an eye-catching stint on the 2021 season of the US edition of The Voice. Born in Minnesota, Libianca and her family moved to Cameroon when she was four; there, she grew up singing in gospel choirs and earned a recording deal at the age of 16. Now signed to London label 5K Records, Libianca is one of the most exciting new talents of the ongoing Afrobeats surge.