Elmiene’s voice is undeniable. Born and raised in Oxford, U.K since the age of 5, the now 22-year-old has been called on for his sweetly soulful croons.

As debuts go, his first single ‘Golden’ was quite a monumental one. After a chance encounter with Louis Vuitton’s musical director and DJ Benji B, the track struck a chord and went on to form the soundtrack of Virgil Abloh’s final show for the brand, taking on an entirely new cultural gravitas. Since then, Elmiene has graced Lil Silva’s critically-acclaimed Yesterday Is Heavy project and Stormzy’s This Is What I Mean and released his debut EP EL-MEAN, produced in part by cult British folk-soul artist Jamie Woon.

His current EP Marking My Time sees his impressive pool expand further, with collaborations from Sampha, Jim-E Stack, BADBADNOTGOOD, Syd, Dahi, James Vincent McMorrow, Courage and a return from Silva and Woon too. If his debut EP EL-MEAN was the scribblings in the first few empty pages of a diary, Marking My Time feels like getting into the rhythm of things and growing used to a new way of communicating with and grounding himself.

Elmiene’s sound resurrects the theatrics and vocal chops of old-school R&B loverboys with the timeless philosophies of our soul titans and filters it through a refreshingly modern production prism of jagged synths, metallic chords and soaring strings to create something entirely new and compelling.

Elmiene was chosen for the BBC Sound of 2024 by a panel of 149 music critics, broadcasters, festival bookers and previous nominees.