DaniLeigh

DaniLeigh is a contemporary R&B artist who has become a fixture on the Def Jam roster. The understated and assured singer/songwriter made her major-label debut with Summer with Friends (2017), an EP that led to the charting full-length The Plan (2018). She has since issued another EP, My Present (2019), and a sophomore full-length, Movie (2020). Also that year, she earned RIAA platinum certifications for “Easy” and “Lil Bebe” before returning with the single “Dead to Me” (2022).
A Miami native born to Dominican parents, DaniLeigh (Danielle Curiel) had worked as a background dancer and was one-half of the sibling duo Curly Fryz when Prince sought her to direct and appear in the video for his 2013 single “Breakfast Can Wait.” Curly Fryz released some independent singles and appeared on Prince’s HITnRUN: Phase One track “Like a Mack,” but DaniLeigh eventually went solo. After she released a couple singles independently, DaniLeigh signed with Def Jam, where she made her major-label debut in 2017 with “Lurkin” and the Kap G-assisted “Play.” The two tracks appeared on Summer with Friends, an EP issued shortly thereafter.
In November 2018, DaniLeigh issued The Plan, a full-length project that entered Billboard’s Heatseekers chart and featured tracks such as “Can’t Relate” (a collaboration with YG and YBN Nahmir), “Easy,” and “Lil Bebe” (with Lil Baby featured on a bonus remix of the latter). A subsequent remix of “Easy” with Chris Brown was issued in 2019, capped by DaniLeigh’s second EP, My Present. The singer’s sophomore full-length, Movie, arrived in 2020, featuring tracks such as “Levi High” with DaBaby, “Dominican Mami,” and “Monique.” It hit number four on Billboard’s Top Heatseekers chart. The single “Dead to Me” appeared in May 2022 as the first track released off her EP My Side. ~ Andy Kellman