Get to know R&B star Summer Walker

She’s R&B’s new It girl and she’s breaking records left, right and centre!

RISE TO FAME The Atlanta native has been singing since she was 15 and says she was influenced by straight-talking soul singers such as Jazmine Sullivan and Amy Winehouse. Summer (23) taught herself to play guitar by watching YouTube videos and perfected her honeyed vocals on covers she posted online when she wasn’t cleaning houses or dancing in clubs.

“I started singing because I wanted to figure out ways to make money in a comfortable and creative way,” she told Billboard.

MAKING HISTORY She dropped her first album, Over It, last month and it’s since made history by becoming the biggest debut album of any R&B female artist in more than 10 years. She’s also had the biggest streaming week for an album by a female R&B artist ever – which means she’s overtaken Beyoncé’s Lemonade!

Her single Stretch You Out earned one billion streams before Over It was even released. The record features big names such as Drake (Girls Need Love remix), Jhené Aiko (I’ll Kill You) and Usher (Come Thru) and has been described as channelling ’90s R&B nostalgia.

UNIQUE VOICE “Summer gives a voice to a certain type of black woman who for so long didn’t have a voice,” says Sylvia Obell, host of Buzzfeed.com’s talk show Hella Opinions.

“She’s the type of girl Drake is always singing about. Guys are always singing about falling in love with a stripper, but we never get that girl’s perspective. Summer – like SZA and Ari [Grande]– makes music for those of us whose relationship status is ‘complicated’.”

Ironically Summer hates interviews and is really shy, Joie Manda from A&M Records says. “But everybody’s connecting to her, because she’s direct and real.”

‘She’s relatable. And her voice is impeccable. When you put those together, you’re bound to touch souls’

– Music producer London on da Track