The LA-born Londoner’s soulful pop and beguiling voice have drawn the attention of Lily Allen and Michael Kiwanuka
As if lifted straight from a Lana Del Rey video, Celeste Waite’s earliest musical memories are of being driven around in her grandad’s vintage cherry-red Jaguar, listening to
Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. “When I was younger it was amazing to me, but as I got older I got used to that
music falling upon my ears,” she said in a recent interview.
Fast-forward a couple of decades and Celeste’s own output clearly reflects this formative education. Born in LA, Celeste was three when her parents split and she moved to Essex, and then Brighton with her mother. She wrote her first song at 16, and after her current manager found it online, she ended up releasing an EP, The Milk & The Honey, with Lily Allen’s Bank Holiday Records label in 2017.