Shelita’s musical journey has taken her from Seattle to stages across Europe and around the world, with a career built on sonic experimentation and an ability to connect with listeners in meaningful ways. After first breaking through virally on social media, she’s developed a sound that flows across R&B, hip hop, future bass, EDM, trap and pop, filtered through a minimal aesthetic and a musical style unlike any other. Her voice has drawn comparisons to the wide appeal of Adele and Beyoncé as well as the expressive experimentalism of Björk, with Shelita’s compelling output ultimately falling in the overlap between those musical spheres.
By not sticking to any single sonic path, she moves between styles, allowing each release to reveal another side of her creative perspective. That experimental ehtos has been matched by an intimate quality that keeps her music relatable, even when its production reaches towards more expansive areas. Over the last decade, Shelita has been sharing her studio creations with a growing audience, building a catalogue that’s translated into significant accolades.
Her Special EP racked up 20 million spins and reached number 24 on the Billboard charts, marking another chapter in a career that’s consistently moved between alternative pop and a wider collection of contemporary sounds. Her 2019 self-titled full-length record then followed before she stepped away from sharing her original musical vision for a period.
The numbers surrounding Shelita’s career underline the scale of her reach; she’s reached number 10 on Billboard’s Heatseekers Albums chart and number 14 on the Billboard Next Big Sound chart, while also achieving a number four US iTunes R&B album and four number one singles on Hype Machine while her music has additionally been featured by Rolling Stone, NPR, Billboard and Forbes. Last year marked the beginning of another chapter when Shelita returned with “You Will Want My Love,” followed by a string of well-received tracks leading towards her Into the Depths EP.
Now, her brand new single titled “Open to You” offers an especially intimate window into the latest phase of her artistic adventure, stripping away some of the distance that can surround a larger-than-life pop persona and focusing instead on the emotive moment of allowing someone completely in. “Open to You” lands as a smooth pop R&B track that revolves around the tension between independence and surrender.
Its subject is simple but emotionally familiar, framing the point at which resisting love becomes harder than giving into it and Shelita comes at the idea with a playful sensuality, moving between wild attraction and quieter images of flowers in bed and candlelit baths. There’s no need for excess, as the song’s appeal comes from its relaxed atmosphere and the space it leaves around Shelita’s voice and that balance is central to the track. Sensual without becoming heavy, “Open to You” captures the context of letting down your guard while retaining the lightness of new attraction.
Brought in by soft piano notes, Shelita’s expressive voice glides in with the opening line “there’s something about the way, the animal in you, brings the animal in me out to play,” forming a stripped back and playful alternative pop scene. Developing with the laid back punch of percussion, Shelita’s stunning voice dances atop the building arrangement as the pulse of woozy synth elements adds dashes of colour to the track. With shifting instrumental textures and soulful vocal performance, “Open To You” sees Shelita lay down an immersive musical moment that’s mesmeric, catchy and highly original from start to finish.
Flowing with engaging rhythmic sway and wrapped in a dreamy sonic fabric, it’s a stellar display of Shelita’s incredible songwriting talent and performance panache. After a career defined by genre-hopping and creative reinvention, “Open to You” finds Shelita exploring something altogether more personal, capturing the strange freedom that comes with allowing another person through the walls. Commenting on the single, she shares, “Opening yourself to someone takes courage. There’s a point where you stop trying to control where love is going and allow yourself to experience it.”
Listen to Open To You below
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