20-year-old Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho, better known by her stage name Arlo Parks, was born and raised in West London. She is half Nigerian, a quarter Chadian, and a quarter French, and actually learned to speak French before learning English.

 

In her own words, Parks spent “most of school feeling like that Black kid who couldn’t dance for sh*t, listening to too much emo music and crushing on some girl in her Spanish class”.

 

Parks began making music professionally in 2018 and released two EPs in 2019 – Super Sad Generation in April and Sophie in December. Her debut album Collapsed in Sunbeams was just released on January 29.

 

Keep up with Arlo Parks on her website, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

 

Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams

 

Arlo Parks – Sophie

 

Arlo Parks – “Creep” (Radiohead cover)

Filed under: #SpeakUp, Arlo Parks, Black History Month, New Music Discovery, your first listen