Alina Baraz
about the artist
Born in Cleveland, Ohio to Russian parents, Alina Baraz has been around music all her life. With both parents having classical training, she was destined to find her voice through music, citing D'Angelo, Daniel Caesar and Amy Winehouse as some of her major influences. Almost immediately after the release of her first single, "Roses Dipped in Gold" at age 19, Baraz and her family moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career as a singer/songwriter full time.
In 2015, Baraz released her debut project, Urban Flora. The project was a thoughtful exploration of a past relationship, made entirely over the…
MoreBorn in Cleveland, Ohio to Russian parents, Alina Baraz has been around music all her life. With both parents having classical training, she was destined to find her voice through music, citing D'Angelo, Daniel Caesar and Amy Winehouse as some of her major influences. Almost immediately after the release of her first single, "Roses Dipped in Gold" at age 19, Baraz and her family moved to Los Angeles to pursue her career as a singer/songwriter full time.
In 2015, Baraz released her debut project, Urban Flora. The project was a thoughtful exploration of a past relationship, made entirely over the internet with the Danish producer Galimatias. The two artists' partnership began when Baraz sang her lyrics over a Galimatias beat, which would go on to be titled "Drift." The acclaimed project was praised by the Guardian, NPR, Huffington Post, Harpers Bazaar and many more, and sat on Billboard's Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart for over 125 weeks, peaking at #2.
2017 and 2018 were pivotal for Baraz. In January of 2017, she released the viral single "Electric" ft. Khalid, which has been streamed over 130M times and counting. The single was followed by an entire EP of remixes, pushing streams around "Electric" to over 157M worldwide. Filling the last two years with live performances, Baraz played festivals worldwide, headlined two sold-out US tours and joined Coldplay as support on their Head Full of Dreams Tour.
Baraz draws heavy inspiration from color and described the process of her latest project and album prelude "The Color of You" as a major departure from her artistic comfort zone. Before recording the project, she had never worked with more than one person at a time, let alone in a professional studio. Enlisting Grammy-nominated producer Robin Hannibal (Kendrick Lamar, Calvin Harris, Cee Lo Green) to help produce the project, Alina completely changed her songwriting process throughout the sessions. The project is a timeline of her trying to comprehend a new person entering her life, impacting it as intensely as a color she's never seen before.
Since "The Color of You," Baraz's creative and songwriting process has grown significantly, pushing her artistry, sound and craft to new levels. In September of 2019, she released a surprise track on her birthday addressed as, "To Me" pushing her on Rolling Stone's Breakthrough 25 list of artists. In Spring of 2020, Baraz released her debut album It Was Divine, which featured the likes of Khalid, 6LACK, Nas and Smino. The album has amassed over 58 Million streams to date and charted 43 on the Billboard 200 list upon its release. In 2021, Baraz maintained consistency with her debut independent releases of two Eps, Sunbeam and Moongate, ahead of her US tour in fall and winter of 2021. In 2023, Baraz released a summer anthem titled "Breathless" alongside Austin Millz. Now she is working towards her solo releases for the remainder of the year with her upcoming single, "Keep Me In Love."