Sekou is striving for icon status through authentic, pop-driven soul music

Existing alongside the whirlwind of Sekou’s life is akin to entering a time warp – though the year has just begun, there’s a sense that he’s somehow compressed an eternity into mere months.

On the day he meets NME, the rising soul singer is halfway through a tour with Reneé Rapp, where he’s been rapturously received by concert-goers who have spilled onto public transport each night raving about his voice. At the age of 19, in February, he became the youngest-ever nominee for the BRITs’ coveted Rising Star award – a record previously held by Adele, who he covers each night during his support slot.

Sekou’s velvety, baritone voice and penchant for weaving the gospel influences of his youth alongside touches of modern pop has already earned him a spattering of celebrity co-signs from the likes of SZA, Bruno Mars and Timbaland. Yet he isn’t daunted by the influx of attention, nor the chaos of his new schedule. “I’m enjoying everything,” he tells NME from his north London management’s office, where dance music leaks through the wall and threatens to easily overpower his surprisingly soft speaking voice. “Everything I’m doing at the minute, I’ve manifested for a very long time.”

This ‘long time’ seems ironic given Sekou is still a teenager, yet his emergence into the mainstream comes two years after he was signed – a period where he fervently worked on his craft and envisioned a multi-decade career ahead. It makes sense, then, that despite debuting during the TikTok age, when referencing his inspirations Sekou nods to an era of larger than life artists who attained legend status by going against the grain.

Upon moving to London from Leicester, the first place he visited was Camden, keen to trail the same streets Amy Winehouse had over a decade prior. And, it’s with a sense of awe that he mentions the hundreds of small shows Destiny’s Child played on their come up, or Usher’s decades-long journey to his recent Super Bowl performance. Within an industry pushing young artists to aspire to fleeting internet success, Sekou harks back to a time of slow-burn breakthroughs.

“There’s so much pressure for artists now to have a career by themselves and explode by themselves, but I’m not obsessed with numbers, I’m obsessed with growth,” he says. It’s this relentless urge to build something enduring amid an accelerated pop culture landscape that’s defined Sekou’s brand of meditative soul so far. “That’s the most important thing to me, I’m not worried about going viral because you might have a big TikTok song – you can’t sell out shows with that.”

You were discovered at 16 – how was it to have so much industry attention at a young age?

“I feel like no one’s prepared for anything like that, but I was definitely engaged and I understood what was going on. My mum was so intelligent with these things so I knew how to communicate with people and just take it step by step. But to be honest, I was loving it. At that age you just live off that stuff and you love people gassing you up. It’s just nice to see how people receive your voice when you’ve lived with it for so long.”

Do you think growing up in Leicester influenced you musically?

“I think it actually influenced me to be hungry and want it. Musically, I was always around the church spaces and I definitely think the countryside and the freedom influenced me to make music and just be honest. No one in my area did music so I couldn’t kind of say to myself ‘oh I want to be like them, I want to sound like them’, there was nobody. That definitely inspired me to be myself and just make what I want to make.”

“I don’t think anyone should be told what they can or can’t do – I would never let that happen to me”

You talk a lot about iconic artists. As someone coming up in an entirely different era – where social media accelerates everything in pop culture – do you think it’s still possible to make a lasting impact?

“Yes, and no. Those people, there’s only one of them, and they came up in a time where the only way you could hear them was TV. So, I think it was definitely easier for people to achieve stardom. But they obviously all worked so hard and I’d love to work as hard as I can to get to that point. I think the thing that a lot of people struggle with and a thing that gets lost nowadays is authenticity.

Today there’s a lack of authenticity and realness, and that’s what [iconic artists] always had. I always think to myself that I need to make sure that I can do this and work as hard as possible because everything comes and goes. But I do think greatness can be achieved in any generation. With hard work, anything’s possible.”

How do you plan to maintain that authenticity in your own career?

“I want people to get to know me. I’m just myself and I don’t like to put a face on or anything. I just make what I want to make, and I sing how I want to sing, and if something doesn’t work, I try again. But being myself and wearing what I want to wear is really important. I don’t think anyone should be told what they can or can’t do, and that may happen to some people but I would never let that happen to me.”

The year has already started strong, but what else do you want to achieve in 2024? 

“I definitely want to keep working as hard as possible. This tour has been incredible, and I want to have the most insane fan base who are just like friends who like my music. It’s all about growth. I want to keep doing those steps and playing small capacity shows that build to more and more from there. But yeah, I just want to be myself in all aspects and just keep growing as an artist and become the big artist I want to be.”

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