1 TRENDING TOPIC: THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVEON

The R&B resurgence of the past few years has been dominated by female artists—SZA, Summer Walker, H.E.R., Jhené Aiko—with Khalid among the few new male arrivals to have a significant impact. But you can add a new dude to the genre’s young leaders as Not So Fast/Epic’s GIVĒON breaks through big-time, with both chart activity and Grammy buzz.

GIVĒON first seized the spotlight with a feature on Drake’s “Chicago Freestyle” last year. More recently, his single “Heartbreak Anniversary” has become a streaming monster, hitting the Top 10 on our Streaming Songs chart and racking up north of 225m streams on Spotify alone.

But that stellar cut (from his impressive full-length, When It’s All Said and Done… Take Time) isn’t the only reason for GIVĒON’s sudden ubiquity; he’s also featured on Justin Bieber’s cool-breezy “Peaches,” one of the year’s biggest tracks (with nearly 240m Spotify streams and Top 10 status at Pop radio).

The 26-year-old Long Beach, Calif., native has a truly unusual voice—deep, with a horn-like timbre, but capable of shivery falsetto flights—and powerfully emotional delivery. As a writer, he’s focused on themes dear to the R&B tradition: love, beauty and commitment in a world full of pain and loss. He may well earn some high-profile noms in the next Grammy cycle.

Does he have more hits in the tank? What will it take for him to get to the next plateau? Stay tuned.

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