Dawn Richard

Musically, Dawn Richard has lived three lives. After winning Making the Band 3 in 2005, she outfitted herself in the pop stylings of Danity Kane, the futuristic soul of Diddy-Dirty Money, and, more recently, a solo career that rethinks the fundamentals of electropop. Born in 1983, the New Orleans native fuses the city’s bounce, house, and jazz roots into dance music from a Black woman’s perspective. Between 2013 and 2016, she released her Heart trilogy—Goldenheart, Blackheart, and Redemption—which explored love as war, while 2019’s new breed ushered in the start of another triptych honoring New Orleans traditions. In 2021, she signed to indie rock label Merge Records and released her sixth studio album, Second Line. Narrated by her mother and led by the fictional android King Creole, the album is an homage to the city’s funeral ceremonies that encourage bystanders to celebrate life despite pain. “We don’t hear New Orleans in this kind of sound,” she told Apple Music, “and that was the fun part—to create something that doesn’t exist yet.”