Image by Ziyaad Haniff

BY MAGGIE WHITMORE                                      ONLINE CONTRIBUTOR

Have you ever heard of Daniel Caesar? If you answered yes to this question then congratulations, you have had your heart sing along with his angelic voice. If not, you have come to the right place and I will hopefully have your heart singing soon. Daniel Caesar has truly become a very developed artist in 2017. His first full length album Freudian was released on August 25^th and that quickly propelled him onto the global music scene, not just the Canadian one. He grew up in Oshawa and truly has his roots (and fan base) in Toronto. This past December, he sold out five shows at the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. I was lucky enough to see him at the Algonquin Commons theatre because I wasn’t fast enough for the Toronto tickets. The concert was amazing and I found myself wanting to buy the scalped tickets to another show a few weeks later. If you have the chance to see him, go. The venue was incredibly small and he had the whole theatre on their feet for his classics like "We Found Love" and "Get You". (I think he even made my boyfriend a little jealous cause I swear we made eye contact during "We Found Love").Caesar became more recognized after appearing on Stephen Colbert with Chance the Rapper, where the two performed a song that remains unreleased. This gave Caesar that push into the light of stardom that he needed. Shortly after, he was nominated for not one, but two Grammy’s, one for his album Freudian for best R&B album, and then for his gold-certified hit "Get You" featuring Kali Uchis, for best R&B performance. These nominations were so unexpected that he ended up having to move around some of his European tour so he could simply attend the Grammy’s. He has other up-and-coming artists featured on his album as well, and I recommend listening to them, too.If you have never heard of him before this, these are the songs I recommend you listen to, immediately:

• "Japanese Denim"
• "Best Part"
• "Violet"
• "Hold me down"
• "Blessed"

At the tender age of 22, he continues to create music independently and has shown he can hold his own with his two EP’s and full-length album, I can’t wait to see what comes next. Show him some true Canadian love and support, this independent artist is truly amazing and deserves your listen.