Jalen Ngonda Tickets

Wearing his love of wistful Motown records and R&B of yesteryear on his sleeve, Jalen Ngonda’s voice soars with old soul as he connects contemporary audiences to America’s rich musical history.

Born in Maryland on the outskirts of Washington D.C., a young video game enthusiast Jalen Ngonda would spend his free time glued to the television. In an effort to unstick his son from the screen, Ngonda's father encouraged him to watch a DVD of Roots. Little did he realise that it would set him on a life-long pursuit of music – one of the trailers was for a documentary on The Temptations, a band which ignited his imagination far more than any video game could. 

Pinching a handful of his dad’s CDs, Ngonda delved further into his grandmother’s music collection, obsessing over the likes of The Temptations, Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Naturally, it led on to unfurling the rich American history of soul, doo-wop, gospel and jazz music, as well as the psych-tinged offerings from the late 60s and early 70s also, while the young musicians learned to express himself on the guitar and piano. 

He’d found his calling, and it proved a potent backdrop to develop his own voice as an artist – and what a voice Ngonda possesses. 

Performing on occasion his local church, much of the reluctant youngster’s musicianship was confined to his bedroom. After an off-the-cuff application to study at the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts was accepted however, Ngonda made a life-altering decision to relocate to England, despite never having left his own country before. 

Fully embedding himself in the culturally significant city after his studies came to a conclusion, a certain local band began to rub off on his compositions. “I love music from the 20th century – I listen to it all the time, but I’m in this world and the 21st century. To a stranger, I’d describe my music as modern soul and R&B, while trying to fit the Beach Boys and the Beatles somewhere in between.”

Even on his self-released debut 2018 EP, Talking About Mary, Ngonda's voice soars with old soul, drifting somewhere between Smokey’s earnest emotion and Marvin Gaye’s elegance. Off the back of the EP, he toured across Europe and the UK, supporting Laura Mvula, Martha Reeves, and Lauryn Hill at Montreux Jazz Festival.

His sun-soaked vocal tone got noticed by Daptone Records. After their paths crossed by chance at a Jools Holland concert, co-founder Neal Sugarman saw Ngonda as the voice to revitalise the soul revivalist label. Eventually, the budding singer made his way to Hive Mind Studios in Brooklyn, New York to work with the band that had lent their brass to the likes of Amy Winehouse and St. Vincent. 

In 2023, Ngonda’s lauded debut album, Come Around and Love Me, was released, winning plaudits from Elton John, Kehlani and Olivia Dean. The artist returned in 2024 with the star-kissed, finger-snapping ‘Illusions’ and ‘Here To Stay’. With a run of shows at London’s KOKO, Band On The Wall in Manchester, and Concorde 2 in Brighton before returning to the city a month later for The Great Escape, it's beyond any doubt that 2024 will be a breakthrough year for Ngonda.