From her future-facing standpoint on R&B to the elaborate choreography that defines her live performances, for Tinashe, everything lies in the details.
Alongside her 12.5 million monthly listeners, we aren’t the only ones who have noticed, either: the singer, songwriter, producer and creative visionary has racked up an enviable list of collaborators over the last decade (including Charli xcx and even Britney Spears), and has certified herself as her genre’s most resilient underdog.
Her career began with a voice role in Christmas classic The Polar Express before a shortlived stint in a dance-pop girlgroup saw her hit the road with Justin Bieber.
It wasn’t until their disbandment that the Tinashe of today began to take shape, though, with a series of experimental, introspective mixtapes (which impressively, she taught herself to produce) catching the attention of critics. She signed with RCA to release 2 On (a carpe-diem anthem dedicated to nights out) and eventually her 2014 debut, Aquarius. It seemed like the stars had aligned.
Except, they hadn’t. Despite international recognition, never ending disputes with her label over her direction led to years of delayed and cancelled projects and, unsurprisingly, left her without a sense of who Tinashe was.
To the relief of fans, they finally parted ways in 2019. “Going out on my own was the step I needed,” she tells me from California, where she’s lived since childhood. “It felt empowering.”
Since, the 31-year-old has been unstoppable. It’s evident in the string of immersive, boundary-pushing R&B records she’s released via her independent label, which have allowed her, she says, to regain her sense of expression.
Last year, following her creative intuition also led her to one of her biggest musical triumphs in a decade (and one of last year’s most inescapable innuendos): Nasty.
Unless you lived under a rock last summer (or you just don’t have TikTok), the song – on which she beckons someone, anyone to match her “freak” against a sultry, languid dial-tone melody – went viral.
“It felt affirming in terms of my career trajectory – it was an amazing feeling for sure,” she recalls of its success. Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, and Janet Jackson are just a few A-list fans of the track – with the latter using it to soundtrack a dance break on her Greatest Hits tour. As one of her biggest inspirations, she describes it as a “full circle moment”.
Emancipated from label expectations and the suffocating focus on chart success they breed, 2025 is set to be another big year for the R&B provocateur.
As we speak, she’s in the early stages of crafting the final instalment of an album trilogy, while her Match My Freak Tour stops by London this week. “Having the freedom to create the art that I want, play shows and travel – that’s the biggest feeling of success for me. I’m living it constantly, honestly.”
Tinashe performs at O2 Academy Brixton on February 23rd.
