Abbey Smith, known professionally as Yebba, is a 26-year-old neo-jazz and R&B singer-songwriter.
Yebba was first noticed when she sang “back-up” to Chance the Rapper on SNL. She stole the show – gaining some serious attention from the public as well as other top-notch artists (whom she would later collaborate with).
Yebba has been featured in songs with American Idol’s Clark Beckham, Luke Levenson, and more popularly, PJ Morton, Sam Smith, and Ed Sheeran.
As a child, she grew up singing in choir at the small Arkansas church where her father pastored. This bit of background information is essential to understanding where some of her stylistic and technical choices are derived from.
Later on in life, Yebba decided to pursue a music degree at Belmont University. She studied there for a brief period before quitting school and moving to New York City to jump right into the industry.
In December 2016, the singer performed at Sofar Sounds in New York City with her iconic single: “My Mind.” This is where I was first captivated by the artist and began to follow her music career. I can imagine many others can and will say the same!
In this single, the public was first invited into Yebba’s traumatic past – specifically into the life of her mother Dawn.
Nearly a week after Yebba released “My Mind,” her mother committed suicide, causing the interpretation of the song to shift tremendously.
Fast forward to now, Yebba has released her debut album, “Dawn,” which she named after her mom. Yebba says that the album took her somewhere around 3 years to write alongside a few members of her team. The artist emphasized her desire to perfectly articulate the emotions she felt toward her mother’s passing to suicide as well as the struggles of her mother’s journey.
As a listener, I feel peace amidst pain. Yebba has crafted this album in such an honest, intentional yet intangible fashion.
I respect her so much as a creative and human being because she is willing to take the time to put together something that’s simultaneously so wonderfully difficult to absorb and so healing for both herself and her audience. She puts sound to important issues such as mental health and produces labors of love. Her platform has been one of this regard since the beginning.
This album will stand the tests of time, and I have no doubt that the best is yet to come for Yebba Smith.