UK Contemporary R&B
UK contemporary R&B is modern R&B made by British artists, mixing American-style R&B with the sounds of Britain's own club and rap scenes.
The singing and song forms follow American contemporary R&B, but the beats often borrow from British styles such as UK garage and grime, and the accents and slang are British. British R&B singers first broke through to the mainstream around 1990, and a fresh wave arrived in the late 2010s. It overlaps with British soul but is usually more electronic and closer to hip hop.
Artists it is known for: Jorja Smith, Ella Mai, Mahalia.
- Family
- R&B & Soul
- On Spotify
- No longer returned by Spotify’s API
- What it is
- A scene
- From
- United Kingdom, late 1980s
- Also called
- british r&b, uk r&b
- Trackify listeners who play it
- 4%
About 3,200 of 83,000 Trackify listeners with public profiles have uk contemporary r&b among their top artists of the last four weeks. Rounded; updated 13 November 2026.
UK Contemporary R&B artists
RAYE
Jungle
Odeal
Ella Mai
Jorja Smith
Cleo Sol
Joy Crookes
Sasha Keable
Arlo ParksThe uk contemporary r&b artists most Trackify listeners have in their top fifty. Each opens on Spotify.
Sources
The definition is written for this site from open sources, and was checked against them on 13 November 2026.