Benjamin Clementine

Born in London in 1988 and raised in Edmonton in a family of Ghanaian origin, Benjamin Clementine taught himself a music that blends piano, poetry, song, soul, experimental pop and influences from French classical music. He moved to Paris in late adolescence and spent several years playing in the metro, bars and hotels around Place de Clichy and Montmartre — a decisive period for his relationship to performance and to writing. His career took shape in the early 2010s with the EPs Cornerstone (2013) and Glorious You (2014), followed by the album At Least for Now (2015), then I Tell a Fly (2017) and And I Have Been (2022). Clementine developed a distinctive style built on a tenor voice, compositions often centered on piano, and texts that alternate singing, spoken-word delivery and freer melodic lines, with arrangements ranging from spare to more theatrical. First noticed on French stages and later at European festivals, he has also collaborated with Charles Aznavour and featured on Gorillaz’s track “Hallelujah Money.”