Sound of 2020: Jazz singer Celeste wins BBC music competition

Celeste is the BBC Sound of 2020 winner

What do Ellie Goulding, Sam Smith and Sigrid all have in common?

Aside from being amazing singers, they are all winners of the BBC music Sound of… competition.

Every year, one music artist wins the title of being the Sound of their year.

For example, Ellie Goulding was Sound of 2010 and Adele was Sound of 2008.

This year, jazz singer Celeste has won the title of Sound of 2020.

Read on to find a little bit more about her below.

Singers like Aretha Franklin and Billie Holiday influenced Celeste when she was younger

Who is Celeste?

Celeste is a 25 year old British-Jamaican singer. She was born in the US city - Los Angeles - but grew up in Brighton.

When she was younger, she really enjoyed ballet. So much so that she won a scholarship to a performing arts school, but she left because she felt the students were being turned into "robots".

She first started making music when she was a teenager and her friends encouraged her singing.

Previous winners of this award include Sam Smith, Ellie Goulding and Adele

Celeste says that her family is a big inspiration to her music - her mum is the front cover of one of her singles, She's My Sunshine.

Celeste says that being a child in a single parent family also inspired her song Father's Son.

"A lot of my friends grew up in similar situations, especially my male friends, and we'd been having conversations about whether they'd inherited traits from their fathers, even though they hadn't grown up in the same household."

"When I met my dad for the first time as an adult, we had a very similar personality but it wasn't something witnessed and learned from him. So I thought, "Yeah, maybe I am my father's daughter"."

She moved to London three years ago with only £100. She worked in different jobs while writing and making music.

In 2018 she was signed to a label and in 2019 she received the Rising Star Award at the Brits.