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Joy Crookes

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South London songwriter of Bangladeshi-Irish heritage whose debut 'Skin' set sharp, sometimes uncomfortable self-portraits against lush retro-soul arrangements.

Joy Crookes was born Joy Elizabeth Akther Crookes in Lambeth in 1998, to a Bangladeshi mother and an Irish father, and grew up in Elephant and Castle before moving to Ladbroke Grove as a teenager. A school jazz and blues workshop drew her to singing, and by thirteen she was teaching herself guitar, piano and bass and posting covers of Laura Marling and reggae songs online.

A cover of Ray Charles's "Hit the Road Jack", uploaded at fifteen, drew hundreds of thousands of views and reached the manager who still works with her. She released early singles including "New Manhattan" and "Sinatra" as a teenager, then the Influence EP in 2017, followed by further EPs before her debut album.

Her music draws on classic soul and R&B, with string and horn arrangements, live rhythm sections and a full, slightly husky voice at the centre. The songs move between personal reckoning and observation of the city around her, and she is often grouped with a wider circle of London singer-songwriters working in a similarly retro-informed idiom.

Crookes was nominated for the Rising Star Award at the 2020 Brit Awards and placed fourth on BBC's Sound of 2020. Skin, released in October 2021, reached the UK top five, earned a Mercury Prize nomination and brought two further Brit nominations, for Best New Artist and Best Pop/R&B Act, in 2022.

A second album, Juniper, followed in September 2025 to critical acclaim, and that year she made her acting debut in Ish, broadening a career that started with teenage covers uploaded from her bedroom.

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