Devonté Hynes

Born in 1985 in Ilford, East London, to a Guyanese mother and a Sierra Leonean Creole father, Devonté Hynes first emerged on the British scene of the 2000s with Test Icicles, a dance-punk band he was part of from 2004 to 2006. He went on to a solo career as Lightspeed Champion, adopting a more folk- and indie-rock-oriented writing style on Falling Off the Lavender Bridge (2008) and Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You (2010). Based in New York since 2007, Hynes concurrently developed Blood Orange, a project that blends alternative R&B, synth-pop, funk, soul and art rock into a more atmospheric, fragmented format. Under that name he released, among others, Coastal Grooves (2011), Cupid Deluxe (2013), Freetown Sound (2016), Negro Swan (2018), the mixtape Angel’s Pulse (2019) and Essex Honey (2025). He also maintains a steady career as a composer and producer, collaborating with Solange, Sky Ferreira, Carly Rae Jepsen, Blondie, Turnstile and Daniel Caesar, and has composed music for film, including Palo Alto (2013), Queen & Slim (2019), Passing (2021) and Master Gardener (2022).