Cecile McLorin Salvant

About

Cécile McLorin Salvant (born 1989, Miami) is a French-American jazz singer and composer whose nearly four-octave range and deep command of repertoire - from forgotten blues and vaudeville to her own original work - have made her one of the most acclaimed vocalists of her generation. She won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition in 2010 and has since taken three consecutive Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album (For One to Love, Dreams and Daggers, The Window), plus a MacArthur Fellowship in 2020. Her eight albums span jazz, folk, baroque and electronic pop, each one a deliberate stylistic departure from the last.

DownBeat Critics Poll - top vocalist, multiple years

3×

Grammy Awards won - Best Jazz Vocal Album (consecutive)

Grammy nominations across 8 albums

Billboard Jazz Albums chart peak - Dreams and Daggers

What's new

2026-04
Nonesuch Records announced Salvant's first orchestral album, With Every Breath I Take, featuring the Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley, due June 26, 2026.
2026-03
Salvant was named Artist in Residence at the 50th anniversary NN North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam (July 10-12, 2026), where she will perform four times across different programmes.
2025-09
Salvant released Oh Snap on Nonesuch Records, a stylistically wide-ranging album drawing on her 1990s Miami childhood, initially recorded at home using digital tools including GarageBand and drum loops.
2025-07
Salvant performed at La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest 2025, presenting classical, baroque, jazz and folk music with her band.
2020
Salvant received both the MacArthur Fellowship ('Genius Grant') and the Doris Duke Artist Award in 2020.