Abby Simone

This introspective, Singapore-born, Amsterdam-based neo-soul singer/songwriter employs jazz-tinged vocals both to delicate acoustic R&B and empowering 2020s dance-pop. A strict Tamil Christian upbringing meant that, for years, Simone's main experience of music came from church life. She sang regularly there, in multiple languages, and her family would often harmonize gospel pieces while her father played a bongo. Listening to pop music was forbidden by her parents, but her ears pricked up after friends played singles to her by Avril Lavigne and Crazy Town while at school. Soon she was listening secretly at home to acts such as N.E.R.D. and Destiny's Child. Simone's initial interest in becoming a zookeeper was abandoned on the realization that years of study would be required to achieve this goal. Instead, at the age of 18, she turned her focus to music and began learning guitar from online videos. The following year marked her first secular public performance: a cover of Adele's "Rolling in the Deep" at a friend's birthday party. Next, Simone formed a funky hip-hop band called MMLD, with whom she spent three years performing live and learning music theory. However, their upbeat, vibrant tone clashed with the personal, confessional songs she began to write, and she subsequently decided to go solo. Teaming up with the Malaysian producer Cuurley, she spent the next two years flying to and from his Kuala Lumpar studio, perfecting the material that would go on to launch her career. A deal with Three Six Zero led her to Europe, specifically Amsterdam, to live with a boyfriend whom she'd met while on holiday back in 2019. Inspired by their initial long-distance relationship -- but given additional meaning now that her friends and family were over 6,000 miles away -- Simone's November 2022 debut single "Same Sunrise" achieved half a million streams within six months of its release. Her January 2023 follow-up, "Walking Away," was written in Milan's Malpensa airport in Italy immediately after an emotional goodbye, while March's danceable "For Once" was the product of many nights spent solo clubbing in both Europe and Australia. All three songs were collected that April alongside a confident title-track on her No Expectations EP. Simone enjoyed the early part of 2023 in London recording with various producers, and she made her U.K. live debut that May at Brighton's Great Escape festival.
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