The 30-year-old, Sudan-born, Saint Paul-raised singer-songwriter Dua Saleh has turned heads and amassed a global fanbase by defying conventions since 2018.
Saleh is a poet, singer, rapper, and, above all, producer. The genre-fluid artist crafts hyper-stylized, cinematic songs that assume whatever musical form the story requires. Their oeuvre, like their gender expression, is experimental. They’re also a global Netflix star on one of the streamer’s friskiest dramedies — despite no prior acting credits.
Fans of Erykah Badu, Sleep Token, FKA Twigs, Lorde, Young Thug, Syd and GWAR can all find common cause in Dua Saleh. Saleh is a nonbinary nonconformist who makes darkly-decadent dance music for high society and thrift shop riff-raff alike.
Saleh shares a common collaborator with musicians FKA Twigs and Young Thug.
Minneapolis-based beatmaker Psymun worked on Saleh's debut EP, Nūr, and executive produced their second EP, Rosetta.
Their breakout hit, 2019’s “Sugar Mama,” is a hypnotic, chorus-less freestyle about a lurid and raunchy interracial affair. Since then, Saleh’s music has gotten more personal, more danceable and somehow hornier.
I SHOULD CALL THEM, Saleh’s full-length debut album, released in October 2024 , is a bold, erotic ode to relationships past, present and future.
Sex Education and its impact
When Netflix casting “slid into the DMs” asking Saleh to audition for Season 3 of their hit program Sex Education, the musician was skeptical.
“I'm guessing they probably just like Googled ‘non-binary artist,’” says Saleh of the Sex Education casting process. “My name's always the first one that pops up if you look that up.”
Save for a few acting electives in school, Saleh was always a writer, more likely to be caught at a poetry slam than a production of Legally Blonde. But, they were a hardened performer, with a history of faking it 'til they made it.
“When I was in college, I was applying for grants, and some of the grants I saw were for theatre.” Says Saleh, “And so, I kind of cheated a little bit. I was performing my poetry for the theatre performances and just, like, embodying the poetry in my body while I was doing that ... just to pay rent. It really helped me hone in on the ability to engage an audience. But outside of that, I didn't go to school for it. I didn't think that I was gonna be an actor.”
Despite Saleh's hesitation, they agreed to audition — provided an acting coach joined them in the room. The audition clearly went well. Saleh joined the show and became an instrumental force in depicting trans life and love on screen. They also became the de facto on-set LGBTQ consultant for the inclusive, but still largely cishet, production. Over time, the role bled into Saleh's personal experiences, and led them to interrogate their own life and relationships.
“While I was in Sex Education, the second season that I was on [Season 4], my character had a love interest to a sapphic. I think that forced me to think about my sapphic relationships, like my actual material life and love, and my connection to sapphics or femmes that I have been in relationships with. That kind of put me through an emotional rollercoaster — a tornado — if you will. And it felt like I couldn't breathe, because I hadn't really been able to express myself about these things — because most people don't really even talk about relationships and stuff in therapy.”
Saleh tried to make sense of that “tornado” by way of their first long-form effort, I SHOULD CALL THEM. It’s a horny album, but a tortured kind of horny that gnaws and shoots shivers down the spine.
Pioneering "Black R&B"
With their 2024 full-length debut LP I SHOULD CALL THEM, Saleh employed an innovative approach to R&B — fusing together poetic rap, sweet-sounding melodies and traditional Sudanese instrumentation with a menacing Black metal backdrop.
“You're hearing my emotions,” says Saleh. “But, it's often clouded and cloaked with flowery imagery and flowery words that hide the true meaning of what I mean by implementing poetic tactics and poetic manipulation.”
Not only was the debut LP their meatiest project to date, it’s also their most meaningful. The album allowed space for Saleh to open up like never before.
“I wanted to showcase vulnerability ... that is what I love about albums. It's like you literally get a window into people's souls, and it describes their life in more depth than an EP, or say, a mixtape might be able to do. It’s like reading a book. You're experiencing it in its fullness and its breath.”
The album doesn't just serve as an expansive space for Saleh to open up about themselves. It also provided the space to pioneer and showcase a new form of hardcore dance music they call "Black R&B," which Saleh defines as Black metal and contemporary R&B woven together. The album's eleventh and final track "2excited" is a perfect example of this newly defined sub-genre, and packs in as much noise as possible, sampling from free jazz and contemporary R&B in addition to the core Black R&B sounds.
“It's really experimental, but I think that is reflective of just how I have been allowed to be free as an artist. I started out as an indie R&B artist that people just let kind of flow through all these 808s [drum machine], and like, through softer sounds and through an explosive array of sound. It's like when I step into the studio, even if I want to make a regular R&B track, people get excited and they know that they can experiment and be free.”
What's next for Dua Saleh?
Saleh recently completed a European tour, performing in several sold-out theaters and clubs across London, Berlin, Milan, Paris and more. Saleh's brand is especially strong across the pond.
"I always ask ... have any of y'all watched Sex Education? In the U.S., it's like half-and-half. Maybe a quarter of the people will know about Sex Education. But when I ask the U.K. and Europe fanbase, literally almost everybody in the crowd — 98% of the crowd — responds back being like, 'Whoo! Yeah! I've watched it!"
Shortly after wrapping up their European tour, Saleh appeared on 80/35 alum Dreamer Isioma's latest album, StarX Lover (on the song "smoking death"). Saleh also announced their upcoming slot at Lollapalooza, where they promised to bring out their "smoking death" collaborator.
Who knows what else is in store for one of the most exciting and genre-bending artists around?
