Cynthia Erivo

Don't let the Tony, the Grammy, or the Oscar nominations fool you into thinking you know Cynthia Erivo's sound. That immense, stage-filling voice that defined her Broadway run in The Color Purple is just one tool in her kit. On her debut record for Verve, 2021's Ch. 1 Vs. 1, she deliberately steps off the proscenium and into the studio's intimacy. Working with producers like Will Wells, she swaps theatricality for nuanced R&B storytelling, building tracks from the ground up rather than interpreting someone else’s score. It’s a crucial pivot, a declaration that her artistry isn’t just about performance but about authorship, tracing a line from her South London roots to a sound all her own.