Lianne La Havas

Lianne Charlotte Barnes, known professionally as Lianne La Havas, is a British singer-songwriter born on 23 August 1989. She is best known for her studio albums Is Your Love Big Enough?, Blood, and Lianne La Havas. Her stage name is a phoneticization of her father's surname. She currently lives in London.

La Havas was born and raised in London, England, to a Greek father and a Jamaican mother, spending her early years in Tooting and Streatham. Following her parents' separation, she spent the majority of her time living with her grandparents. She began singing at seven years old and wrote her first song at eleven, influenced by her parents' diverse musical tastes. Her father, a multi-instrumentalist, taught her the basics of guitar and piano, and she sang in her school choir. She attended Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls before leaving college to pursue a full-time career in music.

While attending sixth-form in Croydon, La Havas recorded her first demos with musicians she met through school and joined the duo Paris Parade. She also sang backing vocals on tour for singer Paloma Faith. In 2008, she was discovered on Myspace, and she subsequently signed with Warner Bros. Records in 2010, spending two years developing her songwriting. She released her first EP, Lost & Found, in October 2011, alongside the live release Live from LA. After making her television debut on BBC Two's Later... with Jools Holland, she supported Bon Iver on tour in December 2011. Her debut studio album, Is Your Love Big Enough?, was released in July 2012, earning the iTunes Album of the Year award and a nomination for the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll.

Following her debut, La Havas supported Alicia Keys in 2012 and performed at major music festivals in 2013, including Glastonbury, RockNess, and the Isle of Wight Festival. In 2014, she collaborated with Prince, contributing vocals to several tracks on his album Art Official Age and joining him for a performance on Saturday Night Live. She also contributed to tracks by Alt-J and Aqualung. In July 2015, La Havas released her second studio album, Blood, which was inspired by a trip to Jamaica to reconnect with her heritage. The album yielded the single "Unstoppable" and earned a nomination for Best Urban Contemporary Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. In 2016, she supported Coldplay on the European and Latin American legs of their A Head Full of Dreams world tour.

In July 2020, La Havas released her third studio album, the self-titled Lianne La Havas, preceded by the singles "Bittersweet" and "Paper Thin". The project was recorded across London, Bath, Los Angeles, and New York City, and it won the award for Best Album at the 2021 Ivor Novello Awards. Across her career, she has received a Grammy Award nomination in 2016 and Brit Award nominations in 2017 and 2021. Following a five-year hiatus, she independently released the single "Disarray".