October London, Leela James, und Eric Benét

The young songstress has a voice beyond her years and is hailed by critics as a soul revival. She includes artists such as James Brown, Roberta Flack, Toni Braxton, Mavis Staples, Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway as influences whilst her vocal abilities and tones are often likened to Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner. Her debut album 'A Change Is Gonna Come' was praised for its rich, gravelled tone incorporating traditional soul techniques with contemporary genres such as R & B and funk. It included collaborations with Raphael Saadiq and Kanye West.

She is wise beyond her years when it comes to lyricism too, she has an elevated view of the music industry and often condemns the glorification of materialism and misogyny in popular R & B and pop music. She is a firm believer that artists should rely on the credibility of their music and be rewarded for these similarly to how they were in former decades. She released her second album 'Let's Do It Again' through Shanachie Records and the title is a homage to one of her noted influencers, The Staple Sisters. It was far more commercially successful in the States that the debut, peaking at #84 on the US albums chart and #11 on the R & B chart.

That year she received two prestigious award nominations, one from the NAACP Image Award in the Outstanding Artist category and another from the Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul or Rap New Artist. With this elevated critical acclaim and notoriety, her third album 'My Soul' sold even better than its predecessor. It peaked at #37 on the US charts and broke the top 10 on the R & B chart. After this Leela decided to release a cover album in tribute to one of her favourite artists, Etta James, and critics praised the beautiful re-imagination of the iconic singer's most popular hits.

Born in Mobile, Alabama on 15 October 1966 and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the late 1980s Benet sang with a Top 100-style group called Gerard, and then in 1992 formed a band with his sister, and cousin called Benet. Together they released a self-titled album, which went on to sell over 100,000 copies. Eric Benet then went on to pursue his solo career, having signed a deal with Warner Bros. Records. He released his first solo album in 1996 entitled “True To Myself.”

His second album, “A Day In The Life,” was released in 1999 and the single, “Spend My Life With You,” went on to earn a Grammy nomination in 2000. Additionally, the album also won a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Album, Male. Benet also took part in various side projects such as recording with Earth, Wind and Fire, as well as releasing an album with his label-mates called “Somethin’ For The People.” In 2001 he released his next album, “Better and Better,” but due to the controversy about change in music style that this album had and lack of creative freedom, Benét changed to Reprise-distributed label Friday Records and recorded his next album, “Hurricane.”

“Hurricane” was followed by “Love & Life” in 2008 which earned a Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album, as well as Best R&B Male Performance for "You're the Only One," a single from the record. On June 5, 2012 Eric then released his latest album “The One,” which won him the SoulTracks Readers' Choice Award for Best Male Vocalist. In 2014 Benet released an international album, “The Other One” in which he teamed up with the European production collective.