Samara Joy

With a style that harkens back to the ‘50s and '60s eras of jazz music, Samara Joy McLendon (born November 11, 1999) is an emerging singer from the Bronx, New York. Samara’s childhood was filled with soul and Motown classics, but gospel music was the most dominant due to many of her elder relatives having been involved with the genre. Though she performed in the jazz band and won Best Vocalist at the Essentially Ellington Competition & Festival while in high school, her true introduction to jazz came when she enrolled at Purchase College as a voice major in their jazz program. Her second album Linger Awhile arrived on September 16, 2022, and has allowed Samara to receive her first of many Grammy Awards thus far: one for Best New Artist and another for Best Jazz Vocal Album.