Dawn Richard

Traversing contemporary R&B, left-field pop, EDM, and spare, luminous ballads that defy categorization, Dawn Richard is among the most progressive and dynamic forces in contemporary music. She has evolved from membership in Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money to release several conceptual albums covering all of that ground and more. Among her recordings are the Top Ten R&B/hip-hop entry Goldenheart (2013), the Top Five dance/electronic hits Blackheart (2015) and Redemption (2017), and Pigments (2022) and Quiet in a World Full of Noise (2024), the latter two of which she made with multi-instrumentalist and fellow producer Spencer Zahn. Richard evades genre restrictions with emotive and frequently thrilling results, and connects the past to the future by honoring her Louisiana Creole and Haitian heritage with visionary instinct. In addition to her work in the studio and on-stage, Richard is an actor and animator. Dawn Angeliqué Richard was born and raised in New Orleans. Part of a creative family, she’s the daughter of Chocolate Milk’s Frank Richard and spent much of her upbringing in her mother’s dance school. Before she achieved mainstream visibility, she recorded as Dawn Angeliqué, debuting in 2005 with Been a While, an independently issued set of contemporary R&B made while she was attending the University of New Orleans and working as an NBA cheerleader. Around the same time, Richard made her first appearance on Making the Band 3. The third edition of the reality series produced Danity Kane, a group who released two Billboard 200-topping albums, Danity Kane and Welcome to the Dollhouse, and split in 2009. Along with fellow vocalist Kalenna Harper, Richard then became part of Diddy-Dirty Money, a short-lived group that released the album Last Train to Paris and the mixtape Love Love vs. Hate Love before ending in 2012. Richard resumed a solo career that has developed throughout multiple splits and reunions of Danity Kane. Amid mixtapes and EPs, as well as a third full-length with Danity Kane, she released a trilogy of solo albums from 2013 through 2016, beginning with Goldenheart, which dented the Billboard 200 and entered the R&B/hip-hop chart at number ten. Part two of her “heart” trilogy, Blackheart, took her sound further out two years later and almost topped the Dance/Electronic chart. Redemption completed the trilogy in 2016 and became her second Top Five Dance/Electronic entry. After she contributed words and vocals to a song on multi-instrumentalist/composer Spencer Zahn’s People of the Dawn LP in 2018, Richard started a new solo chapter in 2019 with New Breed, a set tightly connected to her hometown and her father. She continued in 2021 with her first release for Merge Records, Second Line, threaded with segments of discussions with her mother. The next year, she teamed again with Zahn for Pigments, a meditative full-length suite blurring the distinctions between neo-classical, atmospheric jazz, and ambient electronic music with strings, woodwinds, and sampled elements. An EP entitled The Architect, released in 2023, took a sharp left turn with a bold trio of avant-pop confections highlighted by the brash “Bubblegum.” Richard then reconnected with Zahn for Quiet in a World Full of Noise, issued in September 2024. The songs began with Zahn on piano, and some became more layered with strings and brass players, as well as the Budapest Film Orchestra. Spencer worked through grief related to her father’s illness, as well as the tragic death of a cousin, with the intent to provide solace for the listener. ~ Andy Kellman