Alessia Cara

Singer Alessia Cara projects a raw authenticity in everything she does. That was certainly true when she first wowed the internet with the covers she recorded as a precociously talented 13-year-old growing up in the suburbs of Toronto. Rather than get smoothed away, that quality is even stronger on her trip-hoppy 2015 breakthrough, “Here,” an inspirational call to arms for anyone who’s ever felt left out at a party, and “Scars to Your Beautiful,” a frank and stirring exploration of body-image issues that, in 2016, became Cara’s second Top 10 single. It’s there too on “Stay,” the 2017 dance-pop collaboration with Zedd that shows off a wilder side. It’s even there in her foray into the realm of Disney princesses with her performance of “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana. In an early interview with Apple Music, Cara said her biggest goal was “to keep it me,” and she’s maintained a clear sense of her straight-up, endearingly humble identity and a strong focus on her songwriting ever since, developing into an emotive and thoughtful performer and writer. Released in 2018, her second album, The Pains of Growing, captures Cara’s shift from adolescence to adulthood in ways that may delve into a wide range of moods and styles but always feel empowering and entirely true to herself. In 2021, she released In the Meantime, which she said was "a capsule of the last year of my life."