Press photo courtesy of Universal Music.

There’s a particular kind of voice that makes you lean closer. Elmiene’s can rise into a clear, searching falsetto, then settle into a softer register that feels almost like a confidence shared after hours. It carries the warmth of classic soul, but the songs around it leave room for reflection, modern production and the complicated business of being human.

That voice is about to receive a major spotlight: BET has announced Elmiene as the recipient of the 2026 Soul Train Awards’ New Soul Honor. The announcement recognizes the British-Sudanese singer-songwriter’s breakout run and his place among the artists shaping the next chapter of R&B. He is also set to perform at the ceremony, scheduled to air November 27 on BET and CBS.

For listeners who have followed his rise, the honor feels less like an introduction than a moment of recognition. Elmiene has been building a body of work that understands soul as a living tradition: something to study, certainly, but also something to make personal.

A familiar lineage, a voice of his own

Comparisons are part of the conversation around any new soul singer. Elmiene has often been discussed alongside artists such as D’Angelo and Donny Hathaway, names that signal a listener’s ear for vulnerability, phrasing and emotional detail. Yet a lineage is not a template. The question is not whether a young singer has heard the greats; it is what he does with that inheritance.

In 2021, a viral cover of D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does It Feel)” brought Elmiene to wider attention. As he later told NME, the video helped open a door to collaborations and studio sessions, while the discovery that followed asked him to step beyond interpretation and into songwriting of his own. His poetry background became part of that transition: a way to work with language and feeling, then find the shape those ideas might take in a song.

That early cover is an easy headline. The more revealing story is what came after. Elmiene began establishing his own sensibility through songs that favor emotional candor over vocal showmanship for its own sake. The voice can soar, but it is most affecting when it sounds as though it has something at stake.

Press photo courtesy of Universal Music.

From early EPs to a full-length statement

Elmiene’s early releases mapped out a developing artist rather than a finished formula. His EPs El-Mean and Marking My Time arrived in 2023, introducing listeners to a songwriter drawn to memory, longing and the effort of staying grounded as life changes. “Marking My Time,” the title track of the latter project, was described by Elmiene as a personal checkpoint: a way to acknowledge where he had been while finding his footing in what came next.

That sense of reflection carries into his debut album, sounds for someone, released in March 2026 through Polydor and Def Jam Recordings. The 12-track record turns toward love, loss and family, with Elmiene describing it as a deeply personal project shaped by his relationship with his late father. Rather than treating grief as a single mood, the album allows it to move: from tenderness to ache, from questions without easy answers to the possibility of hope.

The opening track, “Moment,” eases listeners in with piano and a performance that feels deliberately unguarded. Elsewhere, “Saviour” brings Sampha into the songwriting picture, while “Light By The Window” features Raphael Saadiq. These are meaningful creative connections, but the album’s center remains Elmiene’s own voice and point of view. Its collaborators add color and texture without crowding the intimacy at its heart.

Album artwork courtesy of Universal Music.

Why the New Soul Honor matters

The Soul Train Awards have long celebrated Black music as a broad, evolving conversation: one that moves between soul, R&B, hip-hop, gospel, jazz and more. The New Soul Honor speaks directly to that future-facing spirit. For Elmiene, the recognition arrives after a run that includes a debut album, a sold-out headline tour and performances that have introduced his voice to audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

BET’s announcement notes that Elmiene was born and raised in Oxford, England. He has since made London part of his story, but his musical identity is not neatly contained by one city or one scene. It moves through British and Sudanese heritage, American R&B touchstones and the cross-border creative community that has helped shape his recordings. He has opened for Stevie Wonder and SZA, and his NPR Tiny Desk performance offered another intimate setting for listeners to hear how naturally his voice can hold a room.

The honor also gives a wider audience a reason to explore beyond the first impression. If the D’Angelo cover was the doorway, the catalog is where the artist comes into focus: his own songs, his own questions, his own sense of what soul can hold.

A new chapter in the UK soul conversation

The phrase “UK soul revival” can sound like a neat label for a much larger movement. There is no single sound or shared blueprint behind today’s British soul artists. What connects many of them is an openness to influence: classic R&B in conversation with contemporary production, local experience with global listening, intimate writing with expansive musical instincts.

Elmiene belongs in that conversation not because he recreates the past, but because he treats it as something worth carrying forward. His songs make space for lineage without letting lineage speak for him. The phrasing may recall the records that shaped generations of listeners, but the details (the particular weight of a lyric, the pauses, the vulnerable turns) are his to claim.

If you’re just arriving, start with “Marking My Time” for a glimpse of the early songwriting, then spend time with sounds for someone from beginning to end. Let the album unfold at its own pace. It rewards the kind of listening that leaves a little quiet around the music.

Press photo courtesy of Universal Music.

Listen in, and stay for the feeling

Elmiene’s New Soul Honor is a milestone, but it also feels like an invitation: to hear where this voice is going, and to follow the songs that brought it here. As the award ceremony approaches on November 27, there’s time to get acquainted, or to revisit the records with fresh ears.

For more listening, explore our reflections on neo soul artists shaping the sound of 2026. Then tune in to The Funk Jazz Lounge’s 24/7 stream for a soundtrack where contemporary soul meets the deep roots of R&B, jazz and poetry. Find a comfortable hour, let the groove settle in, and make room for Elmiene.