There are voices that simply stop you in your tracks. Celeste — born Celeste Epiphany Waite in Los Angeles but raised in Brighton, England — owns one of them. Raw, smoky, and impossibly soulful, her contralto cuts through whatever you’re doing and demands your full attention. Whether you first heard her on a curated Spotify playlist, through the BBC Sound of 2020 announcement, or stumbled across her haunting cover of “La Vie en Rose,” one thing is clear: the best songs of Celeste represent some of the most emotionally honest, musically sophisticated writing in contemporary British soul. This list is a love letter to her catalog — from early EP rarities to the sweeping orchestral grandeur of her 2025 return.
A Little Love
There is a moment, right around the forty-second mark of “A Little Love,” when Celeste’s voice breaks on a single syllable and everything else falls away. This track, released in 2021 on her debut album Not Your Muse, served as the official John Lewis Christmas advert song that year — but calling it a Christmas song would be a disservice to its depth. The production is warm but restrained, layering piano and subtle strings beneath a vocal performance that oscillates between tenderness and quiet devastation. Lyrically, it explores the simple, profound need for human connection, and Celeste delivers every line as though confessing something personal. Put it on proper over-ear headphones and the intimacy of the mix becomes almost overwhelming.
Stop This Flame
“Stop This Flame” is the track that introduced millions to Celeste when it first surfaced in 2020 on the Stop This Flame EP, and it remains one of her most electrifying performances on record. The song builds from a smoldering, low-register verse — just Celeste’s voice, sparsely accompanied — into a full-throated chorus that feels like watching someone finally shed the weight of restraint. The soul-pop arrangement draws heavily from the Motown playbook while remaining distinctly contemporary, with crisp percussion and a horn-inflected mid-section that rewards repeated listening. It later appeared in remixed form as Stop This Flame (Celeste x MK) in 2021, which pushed the track further into dance territory, but the original remains definitive. This is the song you play someone when you’re trying to explain why Celeste matters.
Hear My Voice
Written for Aaron Sorkin’s 2020 film The Trial of the Chicago 7, “Hear My Voice” earned Celeste a Golden Globe nomination and introduced her to an entirely new global audience. The song is a statement — bold, orchestrated, built around one of Celeste’s most controlled vocal deliveries, where she restrains the full power of her voice through the verses to make the soaring chorus land with maximum impact. The production, co-written with Nicholas Britell, marries gospel undertones with cinematic sweep, and the lyrical themes of resistance and visibility carry an urgency that transcends its film origins. On headphones, the spatial mixing becomes apparent — voices and strings surround you as though you’re in the room.
Not Your Muse
The title track of her 2021 debut album, “Not Your Muse” is Celeste at her most declarative. The song functions as both personal manifesto and artistic statement of intent — she is not a projection screen for other people’s needs, not a blank canvas for someone else’s narrative. The arrangement is characteristically lush, with vintage-inflected piano and a rhythm section that shuffles rather than pounds, giving the whole thing the feel of a late-night jazz lounge recording that somehow crept into 2021. Her vocal phrasing on this track is particularly notable for its rhythmic sophistication; she pushes and pulls against the beat in ways that feel spontaneous but are clearly deeply considered.
Both Sides of the Moon
One of the standout cuts from Celeste’s 2019 Compilation 1.1 EP, “Both Sides of the Moon” reveals how fully formed her artistic vision was even before mainstream recognition arrived. The song is built on an extended metaphor about duality — the public and private self, the illuminated and the hidden — rendered through imagery that is genuinely literary rather than merely decorative. The production is sparse and dreamlike, with acoustic guitar and minimal percussion allowing her voice to occupy the full sonic landscape. It remains a favorite among longer-term Celeste listeners precisely because it shows the songwriter at work, not just the vocalist.
La Vie en Rose
When Celeste released her interpretation of Edith Piaf’s timeless “La Vie en Rose” in 2020, the response was immediate and emphatic. What she brings to this much-covered standard is a sense of lived vulnerability — this isn’t a showpiece performance designed to demonstrate range; it’s a quiet, aching rendition that feels like a private confession. She strips the arrangement back dramatically, leaning into the natural grain of her voice rather than smoothing it into conventional prettiness. The result is a version that sits comfortably alongside any in the song’s long history. If you haven’t heard it through a quality pair of earbuds with wide soundstage, you’re missing the delicate breath and texture that make this recording special.
Strange
From the Compilation 1.1 EP released in 2019, “Strange” represents one of the earliest windows into Celeste’s world, and it still sounds bracingly original. The track deals with the disorientation of new love — that unsettled, giddy strangeness of falling — with a lyrical directness that avoids cliche entirely. Production-wise, it occupies the same warm, slightly dusty sonic territory as her best early work, with organ and piano providing harmonic foundation beneath a vocal that already shows the full range of her emotional intelligence. For anyone building a Celeste chronological playlist, this is the essential starting point.
Father’s Son
Also from the 2019 Compilation 1.1 EP, “Father’s Son” is perhaps the most emotionally naked thing Celeste had released up to that point. The song explores family, inheritance — the ways we carry people with us whether we choose to or not — through imagery that is specific enough to feel autobiographical but universal enough to resonate widely. The arrangement is stark and beautiful, with piano at the center and very little else, giving the vocal nowhere to hide and every reason to shine. It remains one of those tracks that dedicated fans cite as evidence that the deeper cuts in her catalog deserve as much attention as the headline singles.
I Can See The Change
Released in 2020 alongside the broader cultural reckoning following the Black Lives Matter protests that year, “I Can See The Change” carries real political weight without sacrificing musical sophistication. Celeste channels Nina Simone and Aretha Franklin here — not in a derivative way, but in the tradition of using soul music as a vehicle for truth-telling and community. The song builds methodically, adding layers of voice and instrumentation until the final section feels genuinely cathartic. It’s the kind of track that reminds you why soul music exists and why it endures.
Tonight Tonight
Not everything in Celeste’s catalog reaches for the emotional jugular — “Tonight Tonight,” from the 2021 Not Your Muse album, is proof that she can do joy as convincingly as sorrow. This is a swinging, retro-influenced pop song with a hook that lodges itself firmly in the brain from first listen, built on walking bass, brass stabs, and a vocal delivery that has genuine playfulness in its phrasing. It’s the perfect entry point for listeners who might find Celeste’s more emotionally intense work a little overwhelming at first — a reminder that the full picture of this artist includes warmth, wit, and genuine fun. Browse through more tracks like this in the GlobalMusicVibe songs archive.
Beloved
From the 2021 Not Your Muse album, “Beloved” is one of the quietest, most affecting songs in Celeste’s entire catalog. The production is virtually absent — piano, voice, space — and the lyrical content orbits loss and tenderness with a restraint that makes every word feel considered. It’s the kind of song that rewards the listener who pays attention, because the emotional payload accumulates gradually rather than arriving all at once. In a live context, Celeste has spoken about the personal origins of this material, and that biographical weight is present even on record.
Ideal Woman
“Ideal Woman,” from the 2021 Not Your Muse album, tackles cultural expectations and the exhausting performance of femininity with equal measures of wit and fury. The production has a slightly harder edge than much of the album — there’s a percussive intensity here that gives the lyrical critique real force — and Celeste’s vocal delivery shifts between controlled anger and something approaching sardonic amusement. It’s one of the album’s most thematically cohesive tracks, sitting in conversation with “Not Your Muse” and “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” as part of a broader interrogation of identity and external pressure.
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Another standout from Not Your Muse (2021), “Tell Me Something I Don’t Know” is Celeste operating at peak cool. The arrangement leans into jazz-influenced chord voicings and a syncopated rhythmic feel, and her vocal sits in the pocket with an assurance that only comes from a singer who has completely internalized their own style. Lyrically, the song occupies the space between self-awareness and defiance — she knows exactly who she is, and she’s inviting you to keep up. It’s the kind of track that sounds effortless precisely because enormous craft went into making it feel that way.
There Will Come a Day
Written for the 2023 soundtrack The Color Purple (Music From and Inspired By), “There Will Come a Day” announced that Celeste’s cinematic sensibilities had only deepened in the years since her Chicago 7 success. The song operates at the intersection of gospel, soul, and orchestral pop, with a production scale that feels appropriately epic for a project connected to one of the great American stories. Her voice sounds more settled and assured here than ever — she leans into the lower register with a confidence that was always present but has grown even more authoritative.
Some Goodbyes Come With Hellos
From the 2021 Not Your Muse album, “Some Goodbyes Come With Hellos” is one of those album deep cuts that takes a few listens to fully reveal itself. The title alone carries a kind of philosophical weight, and the song lives up to it — exploring endings and beginnings as intertwined rather than opposed, loss as the necessary condition for growth. The arrangement is lush and deliberate, with strings appearing in the second half to carry the emotional resolution. This is the kind of song you return to during major life transitions.
To Love a Man
From her 2023 EP Lately, “To Love a Man” shows Celeste exploring more complex emotional terrain with a maturity that feels earned. The writing here engages with the contradictions and compromises of adult romantic love — not idealized, not cynical, but observed with genuine psychological acuity. The production is warmer and slightly more contemporary than her debut era material, suggesting an artist intentionally evolving without abandoning what made her distinctive in the first place.
Little Runaway
Released in 2020 as part of the Stop This Flame EP era, “Little Runaway” is one of Celeste’s most kinetic recordings — there’s a momentum here, a sense of barely-contained motion, that distinguishes it from her more contemplative work. The production has a rawness to it, with rhythm guitar and a driving rhythm section pushing the arrangement forward in a way that brings out an almost rock-influenced edge to her vocal. It’s a reminder that her artistic range is considerably wider than the ballad-heavy narrative sometimes built around her.
In the Summer of My Life
From the 2021 Not Your Muse album, “In the Summer of My Life” is a quietly stunning meditation on memory, youth, and the passage of time. Celeste captures something genuinely difficult here — the bittersweet feeling of looking back at a period you understood was golden only in retrospect — without tipping into sentimentality. The production evokes golden-hour warmth through analog-influenced tones and gentle harmonic movement, and her vocal has a reflective quality that feels perfectly matched to the lyrical content.
This Is Who I Am
From her 2025 album Woman of Faces, “This Is Who I Am” functions as a reintroduction — Celeste stepping back into public view after a period of creative recalibration and announcing that the hiatus has only deepened her sense of self. The production feels more spacious than much of her earlier work, with contemporary production touches that bring her sound into the mid-2020s without sacrificing the vintage soul warmth that defines her. The lyrical directness is classic Celeste: no metaphor necessary when the truth is this clear.
She’s My Sunshine
Closing this list where it all began, “She’s My Sunshine” from the 2019 Compilation 1.1 EP is a joyful, tender love song that showcases the lightness in Celeste’s writing that can sometimes be overshadowed by the more dramatic pieces that dominate playlists. The acoustic arrangement is simple and beautiful, the vocal breezy and warm, and the whole song radiates the kind of uncomplicated affection that is surprisingly hard to write without descending into cliche. It’s a perfect reminder that at the core of all the soul grandeur and artistic ambition is a songwriter who simply loves music and loves people.
Frequently Asked Questions
What genre is Celeste the singer?
Celeste is primarily a soul and R&B artist with strong influences drawn from classic soul, jazz, gospel, and vintage pop. Her sound is often compared to artists like Nina Simone, Amy Winehouse, and Billie Holiday — but she has a vocal personality and lyrical sensibility that is distinctly her own. Her debut album Not Your Muse (2021) demonstrated the full breadth of her range across these related genres.
What is Celeste’s most famous song?
“A Little Love,” used in the 2020 John Lewis Christmas advertisement in the UK, became her most widely recognized song and introduced her to the largest mainstream audience. However, “Stop This Flame” and “Hear My Voice” (from The Trial of the Chicago 7) are arguably her most critically acclaimed tracks, with “Hear My Voice” earning a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song.
Did Celeste win any major awards?
Yes. Celeste won the Critics’ Choice Award at the Brit Awards in 2020, and was named BBC Sound of 2020. Her song “Hear My Voice” received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song at the 78th Golden Globe Awards in 2021. Her debut album Not Your Muse debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart.
When did Celeste release her debut album?
Celeste released her debut album Not Your Muse on January 29, 2021, via Polydor Records. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart and received widespread critical praise for its cohesive blend of soul, jazz, and vintage pop.
Is Celeste working on new music in 2025?
Yes. Celeste released her second album Woman of Faces in 2025, marking a significant return after a period of relative quiet following her debut. “This Is Who I Am” is one of the standout tracks from this project, and early responses have praised the album’s emotional depth and sonic maturity.
What makes Celeste’s voice unique?
Celeste possesses a rich, warm contralto — one of the rarer lower female voice types — with an unusual combination of natural grain and tonal purity. She uses vibrato sparingly and with great control, and her phrasing is highly rhythmically sophisticated, reflecting her study of jazz vocalists alongside soul and gospel singers. This combination gives her voice an instantly identifiable character that is difficult to mistake for anyone else working today.