Cleo Sol

Cleo Sol is an English singer and songwriter of soul and R&B, and the lead voice of the British collective SAULT. She was born Cleopatra Zvezdana Nikolic on 24 March 1990 and was born and raised in Ladbroke Grove in west London, the child of musicians who lived in Notting Hill. Her mother is Serbian-Spanish and her father is Jamaican: the Serbian side of her mother's family, which also gave her the middle name Zvezdana and the surname Nikolic, is why she is on Muzika-Balkan. She makes her records with her husband, the producer Inflo; the sources do not say where she lives today.

She grew up on reggae, Motown, jazz and Latin music, and names Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott among her influences. Her first appearance on record was in 2008, on Tinie Tempah's single "Tears". In 2011 she signed to DaVinChe's label Dirty Canvas and Island Records and released singles such as "High" and "Never the Right Time (Who Do You Love)".

After a break from 2012 to 2017 she returned on 9 March 2018 with the EP Winter Songs. In 2019 she sang on "Selfish" by the British rapper Little Simz, and the two met again in 2021 on "Woman". Her debut album Rose in the Dark came out on 27 March 2020 and was named in end-of-year lists by Complex and Clash.

Her second album, Mother, followed on 20 August 2021, the year her child was born. AllMusic gave it four and a half stars and listed it among the best albums of the year, Mojo compared it to Stevie Wonder in the 1970s, NPR Music ranked it the 26th best album of 2021, and it was nominated for the Best Album Ivor Novello Award in 2022. Two surprise albums, Heaven and Gold, came out in September 2023, and Gentlewoman in August 2026.

With Inflo she leads SAULT, a mostly anonymous collective that has released thirteen studio albums since 2019. Its album Untitled (Rise) was nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2021. She rarely performs live; in 2024 she gave a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, which is in the playlist.