London-based singer/songwriter Miraa May makes music with a mix of directness, power and vulnerability that evokes the best of Amy Winehouse, one of her primary influences. It’s no wonder May’s early club performances and her 2014 debut, The Beginning, brought the then-teenaged artist—who was born in Algeria in 1996 before she moved to the UK with her family—to the attention of Island Records, Winehouse’s former label, and Salaam Remi, the American producer who worked with the late singer. May travelled to Remi’s Miami studio to make 2016’s N15, an EP that established her as one of the most exciting new talents in R&B. On later releases, like 2018’s Care Package and the 2019 single “Angles” (an effervescent collaboration with rapper JME), May combines frank and relatable lyrics about mental health and sexist stereotypes with music that draws as much from grime, Algerian rai and Afrobeat as it does from soul and jazz.