With its continuous influence on pop music, dance, hip-hop, and more, R&B is one of modern music’s most impactful and dynamic genres. While R&B has traditionally been led by US-based artists, there’s a new generation of R&B stars from around the world who are driving the genre’s evolution—and they're at the forefront of a movement that’s more intersectional and more globally relevant yet locally resonant than ever before. While much of 2000s music was dominated by the mainstreaming of R&B into pop culture, today’s free-flowing, boundary-agnostic R&B owes a lot to the neo-soul pioneers of the late ’90s and early 2000s. Artists like D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, and India.Arie embraced more conscious messaging, elements of spoken-word poetry, and classic threads of jazz, funk, and more traditional acoustics and instrumentation. They shared stories that were just as universal as the often very binary, straight-down-the-middle mode of the late ’90s and early 2000s, when many R&B artists found traction through either happily-ever-after, wedding-ready ballads or cathartic, kick-them-to-the-curb breakup anthems. As mainstream R&B became further enmeshed with pop and hip-hop, the lyrical freedom of these pioneers (along with the constant evolution of genre stalwarts) gave space for other artists to later expand on and reference the movements they started—from Erykah Badu’s lyricism influencing stars like SZA and LION BABE’s Jillian Hervey to D’Angelo’s sonic influence on Ari Lennox and PJ Morton, and Brandy’s vocal dexterity offering continuous inspiration to Jazmine Sullivan. At the same time, cultural shifts that allowed previously taboo topics to be discussed more openly—aided by shifts in popular media towards celebrating individual stories—created space for themes both conscious and escapist, political and popular, to co-exist. Yet it’s far from a uniformity of sound—especially as R&B has rooted itself deeper in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The global stars of R&B in 2022 aren’t afraid to fuse sounds and rhythms from other genres with explicit ties to their own culture and heritage, while also experimenting with new forms of song structure. It’s a mindset that seems less concerned with sounding like the R&B they grew up listening to, and more about embracing all sides of their identity through anever-evolving approach. And it’s paid off, with all of these stars earning attention around the world. For the artist, it means not having to move to the US in order to gain traction, allowing them to be both authentic and locally relevant. For their fans, it’s an approach that aligns more closely than ever before with their own hybrid identities and lifestyles. (Hearing your favorite genre in your own language just hits different.) For new fans further away from home, discovering fresh interpretations of R&B modalities creates an easy entry point towards deeper cultural connections and understanding. Underscoring all of that is a generation of digitally native artists and fans alike—people extremely well-versed in creating, sharing, and discovering music online, unrestricted by traditional borders. No matter where in the world R&B is created, however, and no matter the language in which it’s expressed, what remains a hallmark of the genre is the emotional connection. It’s music you can feel, to the extent that, whether or not you’ve personally experienced the situation referenced in a particular lyric—or even if you don’t understand a particular language—you can instinctively identify and relate to it. It’s a universal emotional resonance that transcends borders, languages, and boundaries—and draws on other genres along the way. Here we celebrate the boundary-pushing artists leading the conversation and charting new paths for R&B around the world, from Canada to the UK, Africa to Latin America and Asia.

Though acts like The Weeknd, dvsn, PARTYNEXTDOOR, Daniel Caesar, Jessie Reyez, and Melanie Fiona have dominated the R&B scene in Canada for much of the last decade—each with their own unique spin—a new generation of artists are making waves even outside the country. Amaal, Emanuel, Shay Lia, Mustafa, and Nonso Amadi all infuse elements of their African roots within their sound, and they use this fusion of sounds and cultures to carve out their own lanes, using their hybrid identities to create new R&B fusions that illustrate the country’s own melting pot. With the help of Jamaican Canadian producer Boi-1da (himself a close collaborator of Drake’s), Toronto singer/rapper Savannah Ré blended her kaleidoscope of influences into a far-reaching collection of avant-garde R&B on her debut album, Opia. “The hard-hitting drums, the heavily saturated vocals, the live instruments—all of those things are at my core,” she tells Apple Music. “So we needed to make something where all the songs make sense together.”

In the UK, R&B’s revolution is a hard-won battle for artists to break out from under the industry constraints that kept the genre under a “pop/R&B” umbrella–not for a lack of talent, but rather visibility. Yet British R&B’s breakout stars all bear a level of maturity that sees them as much at ease with lighthearted love songs as they are with vulnerable, reflective moods. Here, there’s a true respect for the craft and its traditions, and a celebration of classic elements of soul—matched with a readiness to defy expectations as they both drive soul’s renaissance and propel its evolution. This is true of artists like Mahalia, Cleo Sol, and singer and DJ Mustard protégé Ella Mai, who made her name with “Boo’d Up” in 2018, and whose slick, bass-heavy sound blends modern R&B with old-school tones and stacked harmonies—and whose 2022 hit “DMFU” abounds with ’90s nostalgia.

R&B in Latin America encompasses soulful new voices from the Spanish-, Portuguese-, and English-speaking worlds, and all the intersectional culture that is second nature for those who call these parts of the world home. It’s a movement that’s perhaps best personified by singer-songwriter Kali Uchis, who at once embodies a reborn Billie Holiday-meets-Amy Winehouse soul-jazz singer and a Latin crossover artist who draws heavily from her Colombian roots. Soulful, forlorn, boisterous, turned up and expressive, her multidimensional sound is embodied through a diverse set of collaborations, including her dancehall-infused Jorja Smith duet “Tyrant,” an appearance on Daniel Caesar’s “Get You,” the remix to Amaarae and Moliy’s “SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY,” or her cross-generational collabs with everyone from Bootsy Collins to Tyler, The Creator on her debut LP, Isolation. It’s a dynamism also showcased by artists like LATENIGHTJIGGY, Paloma Mami, Chicocurlyhead, and more.

Characterizing the African R&B renaissance is a renewed celebration of heritage. Moving away from a long-standing tendency to mimic their international counterparts in sound, and away from long-held industry tendencies to replicate what worked previously, African artists in the R&B space have been embracing more and more of the local sounds and languages that shaped them—and blending them with contemporary moods. Nigerian singer-songwriter BOJ first coined the term “alté” with his DRB Lasgidi bandmate Teezee in his 2014 single “Paper” to describe a sound that couldn’t really be pinpointed. “I feel like a lot of people have started to really understand the concept of alté,” BOJ tells Apple Music about the evolution of the alté scene, which adds indie elements to R&B. “For us, it means freedom to express without boundaries, without barriers. It's just about expressing yourself freely in a climate where there are constraints. There shouldn't be boundaries when you're expressing; you should be able to go all out.” According to British-born, Lagos-raised BOJ, the evolution of African music speaks to a renewed sense of pride artists have developed—pride in simply being African. “Right now it's cool to be African,” he explains. “Like, before, you had to hide. I remember when I was in school, I just felt like, ‘Okay, my accent has to be right.’ Now, I feel more comfortable speaking how I feel, like at any point in time. I feel comfortable listening to [traditional] African music openly; before that wasn't the case. Right now, we're owning our shit.” Led by a new generation of artists like Omah Lay, Moliy, Tems, Shekhinah, Gyakie, and Filah Lah Lah, Afro-fusion is the name of the game on the continent, incorporating elements of Afrobeats, R&B, reggae, dancehall, and traditional sounds like highlife into an ever-evolving soundscape.

R&B in Korea and Japan is perhaps best known for its heavy fusion of jazz and soul. Soothing and sincere, it’s slightly less frenetic than more widespread genres like K-pop, creating an expressive and experimental underground scene abounding with creativity. Moods here range from the atmospheric—evidenced in singer and producer oceanfromtheblue’s sampling of rain sounds—to the alternative, as in the case of Japanese singer-songwriter SIRUP—a portmanteau combining the words “sing” and “rap”—known for slinky R&B beats and hip-hop- and electronic-influenced production.