Nao (singer)

Neo Jessica Joshua (born 20 December 1987), better known as Nao (/ˈneɪoʊ/), is an English singer-songwriter and record producer from East London. Her sound has been described as soul combined with electronic music, funk and R&B, while Nao herself coined the term "wonky funk" to describe her style. She released her debut album, For All We Know, in 2016, her second album, Saturn, in 2018, and her third, And Then Life Was Beautiful, in 2021. Her most recent album, Jupiter, was released in 2025. Nao is the youngest of five children in her mother's house, but is the only child of her mother and father, who raised her “as friends” between London and Nottingham, where he lives. Her single “Another Lifetime” was dedicated to her mother. She is of Jamaican, Vincentian and Grenadinian descent. She studied vocal jazz at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London and went on to be a backing singer for artists such as Kwabs and Jarvis Cocker. In 2008, she joined to sing in an all-girl a cappella group called The Boxettes. The group, alongside Nao, made an appearance with other acapella groups in a flash mob performance for the 2010 T-Mobile advert "Welcome Home", which was shot in London's Heathrow Terminal 5.