The unrelenting star power of Sekou

The music industry has a penchant for pigeonholing its boldest vocalists as solely ballad singers. It’s a tried and tested formula for success that means when an artist like Sekou comes along – with a silky baritone and endless talent in tow – they may be swayed by outside forces to tread that same path. “I think that’s the main reason I got signed,” the 21-year-old recalls to Rolling Stone UK. “I think people thought, ‘If he just makes piano ballads, one of them is just gonna stick.’”

In some ways, it worked: his early releases showcased a once in a generation voice, piquing the attention of industry heavyweights from Quincy Jones to Bruno Mars and making him, at 19, the youngest artist ever to be nominated for the BRIT Rising Star award. “Deep down, though, sometimes it felt a bit forced,” he admits. “That’s not how you want to become successful, just going off someone else’s opinion. So, I had to pull up my socks a bit and just try something else.”

That “something else” culminated in In a World We Don’t Belong (Pt.1), his four-track, 2025 mixtape that operates simultaneously as the ideal soundtrack to a groovy midsummer night out and a firm introduction to who Sekou really is. Here, he balances his vocal skill – honed from years of singing in church as a child – and the classic soul, funk and disco influences that made him want to make music in the first place. “Growing up, I always felt like I was the odd one out,” he says. “I think that there’s a normal world, and then there’s, like, a world for people who are a little bit different, a bit edgy. And I just always felt like I was meant to be in that world.” 

On the mixtape, that world is constructed upon danceable layers of synth, disco-imbued strings and catchy choruses that pay homage to the Motown artists whose music he grew up on. Visually, it takes inspiration from various dance subcultures, including Northern Soul, with his video for ‘Never Gunna Give You Up’ encompassing the sweaty, frenetic energy of one of the many resurgent nights that have cropped up across the UK in the past few years.

“I get inspired by instruments or even vocal riffs,” he says of his scrapbook approach to intertwining these nostalgic influences into his music. But for Sekou, the one golden thread tying all these things together is joy. “People think it’s always about the sound, but really it’s the feeling,” he says with a smile.

It’s also a defining feature of his stage presence – one that is steadily garnering him a reputation as a live act not to miss. “Being able to play bigger shows is really important to me,” he admits, unafraid to hide a shrewd business acumen perhaps unexpected in a pop star so young. “When you have live working, that’s when it’s really going to pick up, which is something I’m experiencing right now. A year and a half ago, I could hardly sell 50 tickets, and now I’ve just done 7,000 tickets across my UK and Europe tour.”

Among this burgeoning fanbase are some particularly famous faces. When Justin Bieber surprise-dropped his SWAG comeback album, close listeners may have caught Sekou’s honeyed vocals leaving a distinct gleam on ‘Too Long’. The collaboration came following a random DM from Bieber, a fellow teen-scouted talent, expressing his admiration for Sekou’s music and encouraging him to “keep going”.

“I was just absolutely gobsmacked,” recalls Sekou. On a trip to LA, they eventually linked up, and he was welcomed as “part of the Bieber family” into the sessions that would become the record. Writing with Bieber, he says, turned out to be a masterclass in creativity. “It was very different to what I’ve experienced with producers and maybe some other artists that I’ve worked with. It’s very much from scratch, just pure music and picking up an instrument, creating an idea that feels like it’s there in the room.”

The unlikely trajectory from small-town Leicestershire to the LA mansion of one of pop’s biggest stars is not lost on Sekou, and he’s keen not to let his moment pass. “I’m so proud to be from where I’m from, but I always think to myself, ‘If you don’t work hard, that is maybe a reality you have to go back to,’” he says. “I love my hometown, but that just isn’t me. Without sounding arrogant, I’m not made for that environment.”

Sekou is part of a wave of UK talent shaping the sound of modern pop. As it turns out, 2026 is a great time to be young, talented and British, with homegrown artists like Lola Young, FKA twigs and Olivia Dean taking home trophies at this year’s Grammy awards. Sekou points out, though, that each win came from years of grafting and not overnight success – in Dean’s ‘Best New Artist’ winner’s speech, for example, she pointed out that she’d been working towards that moment for a decade.

“It gives hope to a lot of British artists like myself that it does take time to get to those bigger stages, especially across the pond,” Sekou says. This slow-and-steady mindset has, so far, guided him past the pressures to score fleeting internet virality, instead seeing him take a focused approach to perfecting his craft. “I think people underestimate how much power artists have nowadays and how much leverage an artist can have,” he says, undeterred by the ever-quickening pace of the pop culture landscape. “That never fades away.”

It’s why he’s keen to take time with his debut album – though he says his next single, ‘Dangerous Lover’, is a preview of how it might sound. Inspired by a whirlwind night in LA, it traces the euphoric uncertainty of infatuation over an infectious modern disco beat. “I think I fell in love within four hours of meeting somebody,” he says, adding with a laugh: “I also think I was a little bit drunk, so anything could happen.”

The track came to life in a burst of inspiration right before a flight back to London, but remained in his archives for a while as he carved out his new sonic direction. “It just never felt right to share it. And now it feels like the right time because of the world that has been created with the mixtape.”

Currently, though, the album merely exists as a series of ideas – and his mixtape title teases that a part two will come first – but Sekou does divulge that he plans for it to further delve into pop and soul, as well as to capture “the attitude” of rock music. He’s in no rush, though, and wants to orchestrate the moment carefully. “I think a lot of albums come and go, and I don’t ever want that to be something that happens to me.”

“It’s not a long way off,” he shares. “I think it’ll be something that I work on for at least another year, but I’m definitely writing. I want to be able to do an album for so many reasons. I feel like it can really change your career and make you very credible.” 

Since being signed at 16, Sekou has received no shortage of praise and accolades, yet they don’t seem to faze him. Rather, it’s his own ambition and hunger for greatness that drives him forward. It’s all too evident as he adds, “When you’ve got an album, that’s the real deal,” a tone of laser focus never faltering in his voice. “Then, you’re a serious artist.”

Taken from the April/May issue of Rolling Stone UK. Order your print copy here.