James Blake

Born in 1988 in the London borough of Enfield, the musician studied at Goldsmith's College, part of the University of London, where he earned a degree in popular music. His debut album, James Blake, was released in February 2011, followed by the album Overgrown in April 2013. His third album, The Colour in Anything, was released in May 2016. It features contributions from Justin Vernon, lead singer of Bon Iver, and Frank Ocean. This was followed by the albums Assume Form in January 2019, Friends That Break Your Heart in October 2021 and Playing Robots into Heaven in September 2023. Finally, in June 2024, the album Bad Cameo was released, co-created with American rapper Lil Yachty. Blake also contributed to recordings by Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar. His album Overgrown won the Mercury Prize in 2013 in the ‘best album’ category, and the following year, the song Retrograde from the same album received the ‘best contemporary song’ award at the Ivor Novello Awards. Two songs on which Blake was part of the creative team also won Grammy Awards: King's Dead from the soundtrack of the 2018 film Black Panther (sung together with Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar and Future) won the award for ‘best rap performance’ in 2019. Blake was co-writer of Scientist and Engineers, a song performed by Killer Mike and André 3000, which also won the award for Best Rap Performance in 2024.