Craig David

The Roman Emperor Constantine may have introduced the seven-day week, but it was Craig David that gave it romance, with a sly hit, “7 Days”, which enshrined him as a visionary voice in British pop. Born in Southampton, England, in 1981, David first emerged as the singer of Artful Dodger’s “Re-Rewind (The Crowd Say Bo Selecta)”, a 1999 single exemplifying the buoyant energy of UK garage. But his solo debut on 2000’s “Fill Me In” swapped out sped-up house beats for acoustic guitar and gentle chimes, with just the subtlest hint of syncopated groove to remind listeners of David’s club roots. His debut album, that year’s Born to Do It—which included the centerpiece “7 Days”—confirmed his status as one of R&B’s most sweetly seductive singers. Neatly encapsulating millennial R&B’s crisp, sparkling palette, the record also demonstrated UKG’s stealthy infiltration of pop music around the globe. In subsequent decades, David settled into his role as a honey-voiced singer making irresistible modern soul. Renewed interest in early-2000s dance music primed the singer for a crossover comeback on 2016’s Following My Intuition and 2018’s The Time Is Now, while collaborations with Big Narstie, KAYTRANADA, and GoldLink testified to his elder-statesman cred, contemporary relevance and enduring charisma behind the mic. That easygoing naturalism has been an asset since the beginning, he told Apple Music, reflecting on winning a coveted Ivor Novello Award for songwriter of the year when he was just 17: “It showed me that when I’m playful and don’t think too much, some really beautiful things come out of it.”