The Anticipated R&B Albums of 2026

Fifteen albums land before March. A dozen more artists haven't confirmed dates yet. The genre enters the year scattered and stacked.

Jan 11, 2026

The genre R&B enters 2026 with hope. Yes, hope. Kehlani, Leon Thomas, and Mariah the Scientist scored big hits last year with “Folded,” “Mutt,” and “Burning Blue” respectively. Will this mean the momentum will continue so that the debates of R&B being dead come to an end? We’ll see. The artists releasing albums in the first two months include a funk band from Greece, a neo-soul trio from New Zealand, a producer from New Jersey assembling an all-star roster like a fantasy draft, and a singer from Mississippi who’s never played a festival. Some haven’t released full-lengths in a decade. Others dropped projects last year and are already back. The calendar is compressed—January and February stack releases on top of each other—but the music refuses to consolidate. What follows is 15 confirmed albums and 20 artists still holding back, waiting for the right moment or no moment at all.

Elijah Blake, THE GEMINI

January 16 · RKeyTek Music/MNRK Records

In November, Blake threw a listening party in New York. Keyshia Cole came. Maeta came. Tone Stith came. The room heard nine tracks built around Blake’s Gemini sun sign—not as gimmick, but as organizing principle. The singles arrived in pairs that didn’t match: “Glass House” brooding and interior, “White Rum” looser and more social; “Shouldn’t Wanna Call” caught in indecision, “Work It Out” pushing toward resolution. Blake spent years as a ghost. He wrote for Usher, Rihanna, Rick Ross, Keyshia Cole herself. When he started keeping songs for himself, the split showed—he could sound like anyone, which made it harder to sound like himself. THE GEMINI leans into that tension instead of hiding from it. The duality is structural. Two moods coexisting, neither winning. His voice has always favored control over flash, placement over power. Nine tracks is short. The concept is tight. What happens when a chameleon finally picks a shape—or refuses to?

Girlfriend, Honey Water

January 16 · Encore Recordings

Kenya Edwards grew up in Mississippi singing in church, but nothing about Honey Water feels like it’s reaching for the rafters. The three singles she’s released—“Deep,” “Sticky Situation,” and “Bon Voyage” featuring Tierra Whack—all sit in her lower register, melodies moving in small intervals, production stripped down to the frame. She doesn’t belt. She doesn’t run. She lets silence do some of the work. The Whack feature is the wildcard. Whack’s energy runs chaotic and playful; Edwards’s runs patient and interior. Putting them on the same track suggests Edwards is willing to stretch the template without abandoning it. She’s been building toward this 10-track album for three years without major-label support, releasing through Encore Recordings, staying off the festival circuit, keeping the audience small and deliberate. Whether that approach can sustain a full project is the question Honey Water answers.

The James Hunter Six, Off the Fence

January 16 · Easy Eye Sound

James Hunter turned 62 last year. He’s been making records since the early 1990s, when most of the artists on this list were learning to walk. Off the Fence is his eleventh studio album and his first on Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound—a label that’s built its reputation on analog warmth and vintage soul, which means Hunter fits without having to change a thing. The lead single, “A Sure Thing,” pulls from Northern Soul: uptempo, horn-punctuated, Hunter’s voice sitting high and tense against the rhythm section, clipped phrasing that leaves no dead air between thoughts. A duet with Van Morrison, “Ain’t That a Trip,” appears on the 12-track set. Morrison is 79. Hunter is 62. Both singers have been loyal to the same mid-century sources for decades; hearing them together makes chronological sense even if it looks strange on paper next to the rest of this list. Hunter isn’t chasing relevance. He’s doubling down. The touring run with Bonnie Raitt this spring puts him in front of audiences who already know what they’re looking for. Sometimes the future of a genre is just someone who never stopped doing it right.

Camper, Campilation

January 23 · November Yellow/SLANG

Before we get into this, look at the feature list. Brandy. Alex Isley. Jill Scott. WanMor. Steve Wonder. Rose Gold. Tank. Ari Lennox. Syd. Ty Dolla $ign. Jeremih. Lucky Daye. Tone Stith. Darhyl Camper Jr. has spent 17 years building the relationships that made this possible. “I have all the R&B artists I love that’s my family on the album together,” Camper told Rated R&B in 2024. “Like what DJ Khaled did with hip-hop, but this is R&B.” His first placement came at 16 with “Hoodstar” on Bow Wow and Omarion’s Face Off. “Marvin & Chardonnay” with Big Sean and Kanye West gave him his first Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs number one at 20. The Grammy came in 2018 for executive producing H.E.R.’s self-titled breakout. Another nomination followed for co-writing and producing Coco Jones’s “ICU.” Four singles have dropped since 2024: “I Need It” with Tank and Syd, “War” with Ari Lennox and Jeremih, “Waiting On You” with Tone Stith, and “Oowee” with Jill Scott and Ty Dolla $ign. “Nothing comes from it,” he’s said of his hometown. “I’m very blessed to be one of those ones to come out of that.” Campilation is volume one. He’s already planning sequels.

DJ Harrison, ElectroSoul

January 23 · Stones Throw Records

A health scare in 2024 changed how DJ Harrison works. The Richmond multi-instrumentalist and Butcher Brown member had built his solo career on doing everything himself—keys, bass, drums, production, arrangement. ElectroSoulis his first collaborative solo record. Eighteen tracks. Pink Siifu. Yazmin Lacey. Fly Anakin. Yaya Bey. Kiefer. Angélica Garcia. Nigel Hall. Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. Grebes. He still plays across the album. But the feature list is the point. More voices. More hands. More people in the room. Stones Throw has always favored producers who treat collaboration as composition, from Madlib’s endless guest lists to Knxwledge’s sample-as-conversation approach. Harrison’s health scare isn’t the album’s subject. It shaped the method. When your body reminds you it can stop, you stop hoarding the work. “Stay Ready” with Yaya Bey. “Seek God” with Fly Anakin. “Recycled” solo but surrounded. ElectroSoul sounds like a man learning to share the weight.

Ari Lennox, Vacancy

January 23 · Interscope Records

Ari left Dreamville in April 2025. The split was quiet—no public drama, just a parting of ways after six years and one album under the imprint. Actually, it was when she went on Instagram live, airing out her grievances. Vacancy is the first full statement since. Fifteen tracks. Jermaine Dupri and Bryan-Michael Cox executive producing—the team that built hits for Usher, Mariah, Janet, Jagged Edge. They produced Lennox’s 2021 single “Pressure,” which marked a turn toward crisper lines than her earlier work allowed. The singles from Vacancy (“Vacancy,” “Under the Moon,” “Soft Girl Era,” “Twin Flame”) all carry that same tightness from her previous efforts. The album title and lead single fixate on isolation. The Dupri-Cox lane trades lolling for clarity, wandering for memorability. Whether that trade-off fits her depends on how much room she leaves herself when we get that album.

Jordan Ward, Backward

January 30 · ARTium Recordings/Interscope Records

Jordan Ward tore his ACL and meniscus before making this album. He’s talked about his approach as reverse engineering, starting from feeling, working back to structure. Build the house from the roof down. Lido executive-produced again, as he did on Ward’s debut Forward. The symmetry is obvious. The execution is patient. Seventeen tracks, including singles “Juicy” and “Smokin Potna” with Sailorr. Ward’s cited influences—Donny Hathaway, Joni Mitchell, Roberta Flack—all favor sustained phrases over fragments, voices that sit inside the song rather than on top of it. His phrasing lags behind the beat, pulling you in instead of pushing forward. The Apartment Tour kicks off in February, timing the album to small rooms where that kind of detail lands. Backward isn’t a recovery narrative. It sounds like someone who got permission to slow down and used it.

Ella Mai, Do You Still Love Me?

February 6 · 10 Summers/Interscope Records

The album drops the week before Valentine’s Day. Ella Mai called it “for the lovers, right in time for love day.” The positioning is strategy. Mustard executive produces—the partnership that built “Boo’d Up” and “Trip” continuing into its seventh year. Fourteen tracks. Singles “Little Things” and “Tell Her” preview the approach; “Tell Her” interpolates Destiny’s Child’s “Say My Name” openly enough to earn a sample credit. Mai’s vocal style hasn’t changed much since her 2018 debut: British accent softening the delivery, mid-tempo grooves that favor repetition over surprise, hooks that stay in narrow melodic range and burrow through repetition. The Did You Miss Me? Anniversary Tour ran through December—London, Amsterdam, Paris, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles—building live demand before the album arrives. The title asks a question. The music answers by restating itself until you believe it.

The Olympians, In Search of a Revival

February 13 · Daptone Records

The Olympians’ self-titled debut pulled from Curtis Mayfield and James Brown—uptempo, rhythm-forward, horns and strings in service of groove. In Search of a Revival shifts the palette. Toby Pazner composed, arranged, and produced all 12 tracks, drawing from vintage film scores and the Wrecking Crew sessions of the 1960s: strings arranged for drama, brass that punctuates rather than leads, tempos favoring tension over movement. Singles “Sirens of Jupiter” and “Sagittarius By Moonlight” preview that shift—darker, more deliberate, every part scored and placed rather than left to breathe. Pazner also manages and tours with Lee Fields, which gives him one foot in classic soul tradition. But In Search of a Revival isn’t reaching for the dancefloor. It’s building something closer to a conducted performance, every entrance cued, every exit scripted. Whether a 17-person ensemble can feel spontaneous inside that level of control is the tension the album lives inside. The title suggests the search matters more than the finding.

Tiana Major9, November Scorpio

February 13 · +1 Records

“Shook One” reimagines Mobb Deep. Not as flip or homage—as transposition. The menace of “Shook Ones Pt. II” turned inward, aggression redirected into introspection, Tiana Major9’s voice sitting where Prodigy’s used to go off. Debut studio album after a run of EPs. She left Motown for +1 Records—independent path, smaller machine. Eleven tracks. Features include “Always” with Yebba, “Alone,” “Money,” and the Mobb Deep revision. On “Always,” two singers who both favor restraint meet and pull back instead of competing. Major9 phrases behind the beat, lets the rhythm push past before she catches up. November Scorpio arrives as a debut album that doesn’t feel like one—the EPs laid enough groundwork that this reads as continuation rather than introduction. The question isn’t whether she can sustain a full project. It’s what she does now that she finally has the room.

alayna, Set Her Free

February 13 · Nettwerk

She wrote “Softly” at a writing camp in Bali with Emma Rosen and Oak Felder. The song honors the women who’ve held her through every season—as named presences, specific debts. That’s the mode Set Her Free operates in, conversational and personal. alayna is based in Rotorua, New Zealand—far from the industry centers that shape most R&B release calendars. Her 2023 debut Self Portrait of a Woman Unravelling announced a voice willing to sit inside production rather than above it, letting instrumentation carry emotional weight rather than competing with it. Set Her Free continues that approach across 13 tracks, executive produced by Ben Malone, with collaborators including Sebastian Kole, Oak Felder, Ryan Linvill, Chelsea Lena, The Orphanage, VRON, and Serban Cazan. Singles “Hold Me,” “Mother’s Mother,” and “But It’s Lonely” arrived through 2025—patient rollout, no rush. The album’s pacing suggests full playthrough rather than playlist extraction. She’s betting listeners will stay.

Jill Scott, To Whom This May Concern

February 13 · Human Re Sources/The Orchard

Ten years. That’s how long since Woman. Jill Scott released her fourth album in 2015 and then went quiet—touring, acting, living, but no new studio work. To Whom This May Concern breaks that silence with 19 tracks. The feature list spans generations with Ab-Soul, JID, Tierra Whack, and Too $hort. The production credits run even deeper: DJ Premier, Adam Blackstone, Om’Mas Keith, Camper, Andre Harris, Trombone Shorty, Seige Monstracity, Eric Wortham, DW Wright, VT Tolan. Lead single “Beautiful People” arrived with Om’Mas Keith production—warm, unhurried, Scott’s voice carrying weight the way it always has. Ten years between albums creates pressure whether you acknowledge it or not. Scott’s history suggests she won’t address it directly. The songs will answer. The collaborator list suggests a record reaching toward multiple audiences—Premier for the heads, Whack for the next generation, Too $hort for the Bay—without losing its focus. Whether all those voices cohere into one statement or pull in too many directions is the question February will answer.

Moonchild, Waves

February 20 · ONErpm

Amber Navran, Andris Mattson, and Max Bryk made Starfruit remotely during the pandemic—files sent back and forth, rooms that never overlapped, collaboration as logistics problem. Waves brings them back into the same space. First album recorded in person since 2019. First release under their new partnership with ONErpm. Fourteen tracks. Jill Scott and Rapsody on “Not Sorry,” Lalah Hathaway and Chris Dave on “For Yourself,” Astyn Turr on “Ride the Wave,” Erin Bentlage on “Strong.” Themes shift from the love songs that anchored earlier Moonchild records—Waves deals with grief, healing, growth, self-worth. Hathaway and Dave bring rhythm section density the trio doesn’t usually carry alone. Scott and Rapsody add lyrical weight. Moonchild’s sound has always favored soft dynamics, jazz voicings, accumulation over single moments. The Waves Tour kicks off March 5 in Houston. Whether being back in the same room changed anything or just confirmed what they already knew—that’s what the album will tell us.

GENA (Liv.e & Karriem Riggins), The Pleasure Is Yours

February 27 · Lex Records

Detroit Jazz Festival, 2024. Liv.e and Karriem Riggins played together. Then kept playing. The project became GENA—“God Energy, Naturally Amazing,” loosely inspired by Gina from Martin. Sixteen tracks. Singles “Circlez” and “HOWWEFLOW.” Isaiah Sharkey, James Francies, and Telemakus contributing. Riggins spent decades as a drummer for Common, Erykah Badu, and The Roots, then built a production career alongside Madlib and J Dilla. His approach favors live instrumentation, feel over grid, conversation between players. Liv.e—Dallas-born, Los Angeles-based—sings with slippery phrasing that resists predictable melody, bending around beats rather than landing on them. A London ICA show on January 30 precedes the album. They let the festival session keep going until it became something else. Riggins knows how to build space for a singer to move inside; Liv.e knows how to move unpredictably without losing the thread.

Bruno Mars, The Romantic

February 27 · Atlantic Records

Almost ten years since 24K Magic. The gap is the longest of his career, and he spent most of it everywhere except his own albums. The Silk Sonic project with Anderson .Paak delivered “Leave the Door Open” and four Grammys in 2021. A Las Vegas residency at Park MGM ran for years. A globe-spanning solo tour stretched through 2024. He opened LA’s Intuit Dome in August with Lady Gaga joining him onstage to debut “Die With a Smile,” which finished at number one on Billboard's year-end 2025 Hot 100. “APT.” with ROSÉ landed at number nine on the same chart and earned three Grammy nominations. Peter Gene Hernandez never left the conversation. He just stopped making solo albums while staying in it.

The Romantic changes that. Announced January 5, 2026 with a two-word tweet: “My album is done.” Title, cover, and date followed two days later. First single dropped this past Friday with a lot of mixed reactions, as expected. D’Mile now joins the creative process, following the success of working with him and Philip Lawrence, his longtime collaborator. No featured artists. The Romantic Tour—his first full headline run since the 24K Magic World Tour ended in 2018—launches April 10 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and spans 38 stadium dates across North America and Europe. Anderson .Paak joins as DJ Pee .Wee on every stop. Victoria Monét, RAYE, and Leon Thomas rotate as openers.

Sixteen Grammys. Nine number-one singles. Over 150 million records sold. “Just the Way You Are” certified 21x platinum—the highest-certified single of all time. The machinery is enormous. The question is whether The Romantic tries to match it or ignores the scale entirely. But after hearing “I Just Might,” it does feel like a wash-rinse-repeat of the Silk Sonic formula. What he does with the anticipation will define whether the decade-long wait was worth it.

TBA: What We’re Watching

Amerie

Sixteen years between albums. Amerie’s last full-length, In Love & War, came out in 2009 (we will not acknowledge the two albums in 2018). In the gap: a book club, motherhood, a children’s book (You Will Do Great Things, 2023), a divorce announced June 2025. She’s also publishing her first novel this summer—This Is Not a Ghost Story, about a Black man who becomes the first verified ghost in Los Angeles, arriving via William Morrow. “Mine” arrived in March 2025—first solo single in seven years, co-written and produced with Troy Taylor. Taylor built his reputation on Boyz II Men, Trey Songz, Chris Brown; his production on 11:11 (Deluxe) earned three Grammy nominations in 2025. He’s been holding songs for Amerie for years. “Her voice has not changed,” he said during an Instagram Live session. “It’s classic. Mint condition classic.” They have 27 ideas in the folder; “Undeniable” was the first they recorded in full. Amerie’s early career was built on Rich Harrison productions that mixed go-go percussion with soul samples and made her a mid-2000s radio fixture. The Columbia years stalled. The indie years went quiet. Now she’s back in the studio with a producer who knows how to make classic sound current. A sixth album has been promised. But we can’t guarantee anything on here.

Arin Ray

His father drummed for New Edition. His aunt sang backup for Marvin Gaye. Arin Ray finished tenth on X Factor in 2012, mentored by Britney Spears, eliminated before the live shows hit their stride. Then five years writing for other people—Nicki Minaj, John Legend, Young Thug, Jeremih—before Interscope offered a solo deal. Platinum Fire dropped in 2018 with Ty Dolla $ign, DRAM, and YG featured. Phases II followed in 2019, including “Change” with Kehlani, a slow-burn ballad that became a fan favorite without ever charting high. Phases III extended the run. The Cincinnati singer’s voice leans toward the gentle and effortless, pillow talk phrasing, falsetto that sits where D’Angelo’s used to live. He’s touring through mid-January 2026 and hasn’t slowed on features—Terrace Martin, BJ the Chicago Kid, D Smoke have all pulled him onto tracks in the last two years. When the album hits, expect more of the bangers and ballads that made his name in the first place.

Cleo Sol

She rarely performs live, gives interviews, and announces projects in advance. When Heaven and Gold arrived in September 2023—both produced by her husband Inflo, both through Forever Living Originals—they surfaced days before release with minimal promotion. The SAULT collective (who earlier released another strong album two days ago), of which she’s the lead vocalist, operates the same way: eleven albums since 2019, most appearing without warning, several pulled from streaming after brief windows. Sol came up through West London’s music scene, contributed vocals to Little Simz’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, and built a following through SAULT before stepping into solo work. Rose in the Dark (2020), Mother (2021), then the double drop. Each album has dealt with intimacy, motherhood, faith, self-worth. None have been promoted in conventional ways. If new music lands in 2026, it will arrive suddenly, without preamble.

Dawn Richard

Ten solo albums if you count her pre-Danity Kane debut Been a While in 2005. Six since leaving Bad Boy and rebranding as DΔWN, then DAWN, then Dawn Richard again. The Heart trilogy—Goldenheart, Blackheart, Redemption—ran from 2013 to 2016, mixing alternative dance and electronic production with New Orleans bounce and Louisiana Creole identity. New Breed in 2019 and Second Line in 2021 continued the thread. Two collaborative albums with Spencer Zahn followed: Pigments in 2022 and Quiet in a World Full of Noise in 2024. The Merge Records signing in 2021 moved her from major-label structures to indie infrastructure. Her father, Frank Richard, led the funk/soul band Chocolate Milk. Hurricane Katrina displaced her family to Baltimore. In September 2024, she filed a lawsuit against Sean Combs for sexual abuse; in May 2025, she testified against him and described witnessing his abuse of Cassie Ventura. The new album, her first solo full-length since Second Line, continues the world-building she’s described as her mission. The groundwork is laid.

Ego Ella May

The sophomore album is scheduled for 2026, more than five years after Honey for Wounds established her as one of the most distinctive voices in British neo-soul. Born in Croydon, named for her Nigerian heritage and after Ella Fitzgerald, Ego Ella May taught herself guitar and production at 19 and built a catalog of EPs before the debut brought wider attention. “Table for One” landed on The New York Times’ list of notable new songs in 2018 and later appeared in the Sex Education soundtrack. “Give a Little” and “Alright” turned up in Insecure and Queen Sugar. She won Vocalist of the Year at the 2021 Jazz FM Awards and sold out her first headline show at Ronnie Scott’s in 2024. Two singles have surfaced from the new album so far. “What We Do,” co-produced with Wu-Lu, is a groove about longing for a partner while away on tour, and “We’re Not Free,” produced with Melo-Zed, carries echoes of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” in its social consciousness. “You’re not free ‘til everyone else is,” she sings, her voice floating over a tender arrangement. She was nominated for Best Jazz Act at the 2025 MOBO Awards and played Montreal Jazz Festival’s main stage. The new record remains unnamed, but it’s coming.

Erykah Badu & The Alchemist, Abi & Alan

TBA · Control Freaq Records / EMPIRE

The pairing has been mentioned in interviews, teased on social media, discussed as though it exists. Maybe it does. Badu’s last solo album, But You Caint Use My Phone, came out in 2015. The Alchemist has stayed prolific—production for Freddie Gibbs, Boldy James, Armand Hammer, Earl Sweatshirt—but always in hip-hop, never quite in the space Badu occupies. If Abi & Alan materializes, it would mark her first extended collaboration with a producer outside her usual circle, and his first sustained work with a vocalist whose approach resists the structures he typically builds. Until concrete details arrive, the album remains speculation shaped like anticipation. The names generate heat on their own. But names aren’t music. We’re still waiting to find out if this is real.

H.E.R.

Back of My Mind came out in 2021—debut studio album after years of EPs and compilations, 21 tracks, features from Chris Brown, Ty Dolla $ign, Lil Baby, DJ Khaled, Thundercat. It won Best R&B Album at the Grammys. Since then, it was scattered singles, brand partnerships, award show performances, and acting work. She played Squeak in the 2023 Color Purple film; a DreamWorks voice role in Forgotten Island is forthcoming. The music has slowed. Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson grew up in Vallejo, started playing instruments before she started school, signed to RCA at 14 under a veil of anonymity that held until 2019. The mystique has faded. What’s left is a musician who’s proven she can do almost anything—guitar, bass, drums, keys, vocals—and shown less interest in proving it on schedule. A 2026 album seems possible. Confirmation seems unlikely until it’s already out. “The thing is I’ve been forced to pay attention to these deadlines and all these,” H.E.R. told Zane Lowe in 2023. “I don’t care about this stuff anymore. I just want to make music. And when I feel like it’s ready, it’s going to be ready and you’ll get it.”

India Shawn

Three D’Mile singles in 2025: “Kill Switch” in June, featuring a video with Luke James; “Cotton Candy Blvd” with Lucky Daye in August; “Gone” in October, a neo-Western breakup track with surf guitars and whistling. All three produced by D’Mile. She toured with Free Nationals and Giveon through the fall. India Shawn’s debut, Before We Go (Deeper), landed in July 2022 after years writing for other people—Keri Hilson, Monica, El DeBarge early in her career; background vocals for Harry Styles’ Harry’s House; Anderson .Paak on “Movin’ On” for Insecure. The LA-born, Atlanta-raised singer built her reputation behind the scenes before stepping forward. Her voice sits in the James Fauntleroy lineage: conversational phrasing, melodies that don’t oversell, lyrics that sound spoken even when sung. The pace of 2025 singles suggests she’s not waiting between cycles. D’Mile has become her primary collaborator the way he became Lucky Daye’s—steady presence, shared language, trust built over sessions. If a new project lands this year, the partnership continues. The only question is timing.

Joyce Wrice

D’Mile executive-produced Overgrown, her 2021 debut, but will he be back for the second album? The San Diego singer with a Japanese mother and Black father, raised on Brandy, Mariah Carey, and Ms. Lauryn Hill, built an audience posting covers on YouTube and SoundCloud before the LP landed her on year-end lists and a tour opening for Lucky Daye. Freddie Gibbs, Masego, KAYTRANADA, and Westside Gunn all appeared on the record. The KAYTRANADA connection deepened on Motive, the 2022 EP where Wrice shifted toward dance-floor energy, and it earned her a Juno Award nomination alongside the producer the following year. She’s been everywhere but quiet since Overgrown. She provided the “Proud Family: Louder and Prouder” theme song, a feature on Blxst’s “Better Off Friends,” and a Tiny Desk performance that introduced her newer pop-influenced material to NPR’s audience. The second album, still untitled, has been in the works for years now, with D’Mile again steering the production and Wrice promising to build on the experimental direction she tested on Motive. No date yet except for her first single (January 23rd). The wait has stretched longer than anyone expected, but she’s never stopped working.

Kehlani

Speaking of Kehlani, “Folded” changed the math. The Oakland singer spent a decade flying and sometimes flailing through public attention—four studio albums, four mixtapes, five Grammy nominations—before landing her highest-charting hit with a song about romantic reconciliation that drew on 2000s R&B. It peaked at number seven on the Hot 100, earned her first solo Billboard number one on the Rhythmic Airplay chart, and collected two more Grammy nominations: Best R&B Song and Best R&B Performance at the 2026 ceremony. The “Folded Homage Pack” brought fresh versions from Toni Braxton, Brandy, JoJo, Mario, Ne-Yo, and Tank. The COLORS performance, delivered in full leather against a burgundy backdrop, stripped the song down to voice and guitar and strings.

The next album, allegedly due this spring, will have more collaborations than any project she’s made before. Usher and Brandy are confirmed, while Ne-Yo, Tank, and Jermaine Dupri are possibilities. Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Andre Harris, Khris Riddick-Tynes, Ryan Leslie, Pop Wansel, and Pharrell have all contributed. “There’s no features that feel like, ‘Oh, a label threw this together,’” she told Inked Magazine. Khris Riddick-Tynes is executive producing. She’s 30 now, surfing, hitting the gym, raising her daughter, and finally finding the balance between nostalgia and innovation that made “Folded” land the way it did. Don’t forget to listen to “Out the Window.”

Kelly Rowland

Twelve years since Talk a Good Game. The 2013 album debuted at number four on the Billboard 200, produced “Kisses Down Low” and the confessional “Dirty Laundry,” and then—nothing. No fifth studio album. Features scattered across soundtracks and collaborations. Television work: The X Factor UK, The X Factor USA, The Voice Australia, and now The Voice UK in 2026. Film roles: Mea Culpa for Tyler Perry in 2024, the upcoming romantic comedy Relationship Goals with Method Man. The Brandy & Monica “Boy Is Mine Tour” from October to December 2025 put her back on stage as a support act alongside Muni Long and Jamal Roberts. “One thing that’s at the heart and foundation of who I am is R&B; Rhythm and Blues and Soul,” she said on the “Mama, I Made It” podcast in December. “You’re always gonna get R&B and real stories and authenticity. That’s the core of who I am.” The Destiny’s Child legacy still follows her—the trio reunited briefly to honor Janet Jackson in 2025—but the new album and world tour are positioned as her own. Forty-four years old, two sons, a career that’s outlasted the group that made her famous. The wait is almost over.

Leven Kali

The Dutch-born, Los Angeles-based singer co-wrote “Alien Superstar,” “Plastic Off the Sofa,” “Virgo’s Groove,” and “Summer Renaissance” on Beyoncé’s Renaissance, then came back for “Bodyguard” on Cowboy Carter. He’s worked with Drake, Teddy Swims, and Playboi Carti. His own records—Low Tide in 2019, HIGHTIDE in 2020, both with guests like Syd, Smino, Topaz Jones, and Ty Dolla $ign—put actual soul back into modern soul music without sounding retro or reverent in the way that implies caution. LK99: The Prelude, the six-track EP released in June 2025 via Def Jam, signals where the third album is headed: funk, rock, jazz, psychedelia, songs about desire and companionship and the frenzied apocalyptic state of the world. “The CIA already got your mind/Now when you open your eyes, all you see is AI,” he sings on “Blackrock,” layering social commentary over euphoric production. The full album, LK99, was originally teased months back, but hasn’t surfaced yet. “Grateful, and ready to eat in 2026,” he wrote on Instagram on New Year’s Day. “LK99 album otw.” The wait continues.

Lucky Daye

The question is direction. Algorithm, released June 2024, tested how far the sound could stretch—rock guitar, funk grooves, psychedelic arrangements—without snapping the R&B thread. D’Mile produced again. The pace since 2019 has been relentless: Painted, Table for Two, Candydrip, Algorithm. Four studio albums in five years, each one pushing further from the center. No 2026 project has been announced. But the pattern suggests he won’t stay quiet long. Daye came up through the Motown songwriting camp, cut his teeth writing for Boyz II Men and Ella Mai, waited until his thirties to release solo work. That patience hasn’t carried into his release schedule since. Algorithm felt like boundary testing—guitars louder than vocals, verses stretched into jams, hooks buried under texture. Does the next project push further out? Or does it consolidate, pull back toward tighter structure and faster-landing hooks? D’Mile will likely be involved either way. What they build next determines whether Algorithm was a detour or a new foundation.

Mýa

Mýa dropped “Face to Face” in May, performed “Case of the Ex” at the BET Awards in June as part of the 106 & Park 25th anniversary tribute, released the 80s funk throwback “Give It to You” the next day. Billboard named her one of the Top 100 Women Artists of the 21st Century in March. Fear of Flying got its first vinyl pressing in October for the album’s 25th anniversary. Planet 9, the independent label she founded in 2008, stays independent. Her last full studio album, T.K.O. (The Knockout), came out in 2018. What separates Mýa from her late-90s peers is the independence. She’s the only one who’s spent the last 15 years releasing music on her own terms, on her own schedule, without waiting for a major label to greenlight a comeback. The new album is in progress. No date confirmed. The timeline is hers. “I usually don’t look back because I’m always creating,” Mýa told an interviewer in August 2025. “At this point in my life, I make a lot of songs, but the universe itself doesn’t get it until like three years later because there’s so much business that has to take place before it can be released.”

Sasha Keable

Beyoncé named her one of her favorite artists of 2024 in an interview with GQ, which is the kind of co-sign that changes trajectories. The British-Colombian singer, raised on Donny Hathaway and Stevie Wonder and Mary J. Blige and the cumbia of her mother’s heritage, has been around since 2013—she co-wrote and featured on Disclosure’s “Voices,” opened for Katy B, toured with Disclosure across the UK—but the major breakthrough kept not arriving. She left her label situation, started over, and spent the late 2010s releasing EPs independently. “Killing Me,” her 2021 collaboration with Jorja Smith, brought renewed attention. Act Right, the seven-track EP released in August 2025, marks her most focused statement yet, with songs about betrayal and heartbreak and self-worth, featuring Leon Thomas and BEAM, produced by names like P2J and Charlie Pitts. She opened for Givēon on his fall tour and debuted “Tai Chi” at Tiny Desk before finally releasing it in December after fans spent months demanding it. A debut album has been discussed for over a decade. Maybe this is the year it actually happens.

Tiffany Evans

Before the Columbia Records deal, before Star Search, Tiffany Evans and her family lived in their van for five months. She was ten years old when she won the junior singer Grand Champion title in 2003, becoming the first contestant in the show’s history to receive perfect scores on every performance. The runners-up she beat—David Archuleta, Lisa Tucker, Tori Kelly—would all end up on American Idol later. Evans got a record deal instead.

Her 2008 self-titled debut arrived when she was fifteen, with Ciara as executive producer and Rodney Jerkins among the production credits. “Promise Ring” featuring Ciara became her signature single; “I’m Grown” featuring Bow Wow followed. Then the label situation fell apart. She left Columbia and Music World Entertainment in 2011, started her own imprint Little Lady Enterprises, and released the All Me EP in 2015 with the Fetty Wap collaboration “On Sight.” A decade passed with scattered singles and a short-lived duo project with Jawan Harris called Jawan x Tiffany.

The three incredible singles (“Reset,” “Would You,” “Hope You Understand Me”) with producer Dreek Beatz mark the beginning of her next chapter. An EP is expected this year, and Evans has been clear about what she wants it to sound like: 90s-inspired R&B with room for vulnerability. “Living like a ruff ryder in love is a trap,” she told Rated R&B, “especially if that’s not who you really are.” She’s 33 now, a mother, two decades removed from the kid who won a talent show. The voice is still there, but the question is whether anyone’s still paying attention. We are, though. Where are you, sister?

Tone Stith

Tone left RCA for MNRK Music Group in July 2025, joining Elijah Blake and Jaz Karis on the roster. “Shut Up” dropped the same month—first single from a 2026 album, co-produced with Brody Brown (Adele, Bruno Mars) and Kenneth “KP” Paige (Eric Bellinger, Keke Palmer). The track channels the release-valve energy of Michael Jackson’s “Scream”—frustration pointed outward, musicality pointed inward, falsetto carrying the weight. Before the solo deal: “Liquor” and “Make Love” on Chris Brown’s Royalty (2015), both co-written and co-produced, both helping that album go platinum. A feature on Camper’s “Waiting On You” that peaked at No. 4 on Adult R&B Airplay. Guest spots for Eric Bellinger, Elhae, Jaz Karis, Shantel May. The South Jersey singer-songwriter has been in the industry since his teenage group SJ3, building credits steadily while his own projects—Good Company (2018), FWM (2020), P.O.V. (2023)—landed without major label push. The new album will be his first full-length since P.O.V. and his first on MNRK. The label is smaller than RCA but has built a roster of R&B artists who’ve struggled for visibility at majors. Stith fits.

Memoirs of a Southern Hummingbird arrives early 2026, nearly 10 years after her third album, Charlene and 24 years after the debut that gave this project its name. Southern Hummingbird dropped in April 2002 through Missy Elliott’s Goldmind Records and Elektra—Timbaland production, “Oops (Oh My)” as the breakout single, comparisons to Minnie Riperton and a female D’Angelo. The Rochester, New York native built her reputation on acoustic-edged soul that sat outside the dominant sounds of early-2000s R&B. The lead single “Toot Toot” was originally recorded for 2005’s It’s Me Again but didn’t make the cut. Tweet co-wrote it with producer Walter W. Millsap III; together they’ve unearthed it from the vault. She signed to SRG-ILS Group in July 2025, ending a long stretch without a label home. “CV, thank you for believing in me,” she said of CEO Claude Villani. “I look forward to making history together.” The album will pull from two decades of unreleased material. What’s old becomes new. What was shelved gets a second hearing.

Victoria Monét

Purple Reign never released an album. The girl group formed by Rodney Jerkins in 2009 landed a Motown deal and got dropped before putting out any music. Victoria Monét, one of its members, pivoted to songwriting. Her first credit: a track on Last Train to Paris in 2010. Then “Be Alright” for Ariana Grande. Then “Thank U, Next.” Then “7 Rings.” Then “34+35.” Then “Ice Cream” for Blackpink and Selena Gomez. Then her own career finally caught up.

Jaguar II broke through in 2023 with “On My Mama,” which hit the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Seven Grammy nominations followed; she won three at the 66th ceremony, including Best New Artist and Best R&B Album. The Jaguar II: Deluxe arrived in October 2024 with 10 new tracks, including “SOS (Sex on Sight)” with Usher and “We Might Even Be Falling In Love” with Bryson Tiller. A children’s book, Everywhere You Are, came out in June, and three months later, she signed with Full Stop Management—the company that handles Harry Styles, Tate McRae, John Mayer, and Cardi B.

The next album points toward 90s R&B. “It’s really, really amazing,” she told The Hollywood Reporter after her Grammy wins. “Now I’m trying to think of the next set of things and not think anything is too big because at this point, so many big things have happened that maybe people would’ve thought were too big for me.” New music has been teased that is produced by Camper, but once again, she has not provided dates as of this writing. The Sacramento-raised, Atlanta-born singer spent 15 years writing hits for other people before stepping forward. The follow-up to her breakthrough won’t take that long.

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