Alina Baraz

Alina Baraz is a singer and songwriter whose primarily mellow material flits between contemporary R&B and downtempo electronica. She emerged beside producer Galimatias in the mid-2010s with Urban Flora (2015), an EP that almost topped Billboard’s dance/electronic chart. Baraz then signed with Mom + Pop, and the label issued a second charting EP, The Color of You (2018), and the number 43 Billboard 200 album It Was Divine (2020). She then became an independent artist with Sunbeam and Moongate (2021), hazy four-song EPs she has followed with tender if assertive singles such as “Keep Me in Love” and “Don’t Buy Me Roses” (both 2023). Born in Cleveland, Baraz grew up in a family of first-generation Russian-Ukrainian immigrants. She was raised on classical music and in her teens discovered pop and R&B, listening to artists such us Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Corinne Bailey Rae. She further expanded her influences and joined a gospel choir based out of Cleveland State University. By the time she was 19, Baraz had moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career. She gained some notice in 2013 through her collaborations with producers Galimatias (“Drift,” “Make You Feel”) and ESTA (“Paradise”). Baraz and Denmark native Galimatias developed a deeper creative partnership — which had been instigated by Baraz via SoundCloud — that led to Urban Flora. Credited to both artists, the eight-track EP was released by the Ultra label in May 2015, debuted on the Billboard 200 chart at number 111, and hit number two on the dance/electronic chart. Baraz followed up in 2017 with “Electric” featuring Khalid. Her first solo EP, The Color of You, was issued in 2018 by Mom + Pop, and it entered the Billboard 200 at number 59 the next year with help from the single “I Don’t Even Know Why Though.” The first album from Baraz, It Was Divine, arrived in April 2020 and landed at number 43 on the Billboard 200. The full-length was highlighted by the singer’s first single to register on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart: “Off the Grid,” another Khalid collaboration. After departing from her label, Baraz went independent, self-releasing the four-song EPs Sunbeam and Moongate in 2021. “Keep Me in Love” and “Don’t Buy Me Roses” followed in 2023 with her second album in the works. ~ Andy Kellman