Summer Walker

A leading light in contemporary R&B who excels with self-recorded ballads and richly detailed slow jams, Summer Walker arrived in 2018 and within a year hit number two on the Billboard 200 with Over It (2019), her first proper album. The singer and songwriter has followed her platinum-certified debut with the Life on Earth EP (2020) and her second proper album, the chart-topping Still Over It (2021). Another EP, Clear 2: Soft Life, was released in 2023.

The Atlanta-born Walker was discovered when the studio manager of LVRN (LoveReinassance), coincidentally named Summer Walker, Googled herself and was led to videos the fledgling musician had uploaded to social media platforms. This led to a contract with LVRN, the Interscope-distributed home to the likes of DRAM and 6LACK. Leaving behind her work as a housecleaner and dancer, Walker made her LVRN/Interscope debut in 2018 with the self-produced acoustic number "Session 32," and shortly thereafter followed it with "CPR" (a swooning Jacob "Gambi" Gamboa collaboration), "Deep" and "Girls Need Love" (alluring ballads created with Arsenio Archer). All of this material was included on Walker's first mixtape, Last Day of Summer, issued that October. A four-track acoustic EP entitled Clear built on the tape's number 44 showing on the Billboard 200 and was out only three months later.

Over It, billed as Walker's first album, arrived in October 2019 and landed at number two, supported with the Top 40 hit "Playing Games" (number nine R&B/hip-hop) and two additional charting singles, "Stretch You Out" and "Come Thru." In 2020, Walker was featured on tracks by 21 Savage, Khalid, and Trey Songz, and issued her second EP, the five-track Life on Earth, that July. The following November, she offered her second LP, Still Over It, previewed with "Ex for a Reason," her fifth Hot 100-charting single as a lead artist. The album debuted at number one. The EP Clear 2: Soft Life, including a Childish Gambino feature, appeared in 2023. ~ Andy Kellman