Elmiene spent Thanksgiving at Stevie Wonder’s house. The British singer first met the 76-year-old legend in London last summer, opening for his BST Hyde Park show, and then a few months later, he ran into Wonder’s wife on a trip to Los Angeles. His original plan was to fly home to London, but he changed his flights. “The next week, I was at Stevie’s, eating turkey and cornbread,” he laughs.
Since 2021, when he went viral on Instagram with a breathtaking, soulful cover of D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does It Feel?)” – filmed by a friend in front of the shabby garage of a Bournemouth Uni houseshare – Elmiene has been drawing comparisons to titans like Mario and Frank Ocean, and catching the attention of his idols (Wonder included). His breakout came when Virgil Abloh chose his song “Golden” to soundtrack what would become the designer’s final, posthumous show. More industry love followed, with a Rising Star award nomination at the Brits and Craig David calling him “the new wave of R&B”.
Now, at 25, after releasing his debut album Sounds for Someone this spring (styled sounds for someone, with a typically Gen-Z hostility towards capitalisation), Elmiene says he has finally produced a work of art that delivers on that early praise. “People forget,” he explains from his new home in LA, where he moved in January. “When those moments happen, nothing’s guaranteed.”
Born Abdala Elamin, to Muslim parents who fled Sudan via Cairo and Frankfurt before settling in Oxford when he was five, he cuts a distinctive silhouette: the beard of a patriarch, the oversized glasses of a Miami club owner, signature kaftans homemade by two former flatmates, Jack Pluckrose and Jasper Lin, who now make “95 per cent” of his clothing. In childhood, his mother played him traditional Sudanese music, and cousins introduced him to early-2000s R&B.
Home alone for long periods of time while his mum worked nights, the young Abdala would delve into YouTube rabbit holes of amateur vocal covers of “really niche” soul songs, downloading the original tracks from Grooveshark and LimeWire. “I could be there for hours,” he says, “really soaking myself in the culture.” Samples in newer songs took him further back to the 1970s, to Willie Hutch and older Motown and soul acts. At school, if he felt stressed or anxious, he would find an empty classroom and sing D’Angelo until he had soothed his spirit.
All these influences have culminated in the eclectic debut. Despite having already released several EPs, live albums and a plethora of singles, this record is, Elmiene explains, the first time he’s felt like every decision was made fully intentionally, including writing in Barbados and the US, and with diverse producers (Sampha, No ID and sometime Frank Ocean collaborator Buddy Ross).
“If I can’t make you cry, I’ve failed,” he once said of his music. There’s a good chance he’ll do just that with the album’s slow-paced lead single, “Cry Against the Wind”, which sees him address his late father Jameel by name (“I’d watch the whole world drown to see you cry again”). It’s all left Elmiene hungry for more – so much so that having to embark on a 41-date tour this year is almost something of a speed bump: “My immediate reaction to the album coming out was, ‘I just want to make the next one.’”
Elmiene will be at GQ Heroes in Oxfordshire, from 30 June-2 July 2026. For more information and tickets, visit GQHeroes.com.
