Name: Lizzie Berchie

Where She’s From: East London

When She Started: “I started making music around 2015, but I only released my first song in 2022... It’s crazy to think it took me seven years to do it, but better late than never.”

Genre: Gospel-inspired neo-soul and R&B

File Next To: Jamilah Barry, Bellah, Shae Universe

Sounds Like: “I’d say my sound is a mixture of neo-soul and R&B. It also has hints of gospel music as I grew up singing in church. In terms of mood and feeling, I’d like to think it makes people feel warm, loved, cosy and at peace.”

First Music That Inspired Her: “Jill Scott’s ‘A Long Walk’. I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking, ‘This woman is so elegant and effortlessly talented. I wish I could write a song like this!’”

Raised by Ghanaian parents in a Christian household in East London, Lizzie Berchie’s upbringing was soundtracked by a rich and heady combination of the highlife and gospel music her parents loved, which gave her both a keen ear for melodies and an education in vocal techniques that only gospel can teach.

This was supplemented by Lizzie’s older sister, who knew about all things R&B and relished the chance to educate her. “We listened to Destiny’s Child, Usher, Cherish, Ashanti, Keisha White and JoJo,” she tells TRENCH. “We learned those lyrics and harmonies to perfection, and would perform them in the living room to our parents.” Lizzie’s brothers were just as keen to share their knowledge, even if their sister didn’t share quite the same enthusiasm for their mandatory lessons in grime and UK rap: “Grime was so popular in East London around those times, so if my brother had the TV remote, we were all forced to watch Channel U and listen to D Double E, Kano, Ghetts, Tempa T and so on.”

Lizzie’s path to becoming a singer began in 2015, but it wasn’t until 2022 that she released her first single, “Pass Time”. Wary of hastily putting out something she wasn’t happy with, she instead spent that time painstakingly refining every single aspect of her craft until it was perfect. She was by no means an amateur in those early years, though. “The first thing I created that felt whole and complete,” she says, “was an orchestra and SATB choir—which is a choir made up of four vocal sections: Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass—score for a choral festival at the Royal Albert Hall around 2017. It was a musical interpretation of Maya Angelou’s ‘Still I Rise’.”

Judging by the detail in her songwriting, her use of melodies, and the thoroughly realised way she presents herself as an artist, waiting those extra years has proved to be a very wise decision. Not that she’s even had time to question it.

Vindication came early when Lizzie released her debut EP, Under The Sun, in 2022 to seemingly universal critical acclaim. Her second EP, Am I An Adult Yet?, released the following year, was even more well-received, winning her even more new fans and the award for Project Of The Year at the Rhythm In Britain Awards. Her most recent project, Night Shift, continues on that trajectory; her storytelling is more effective than ever, conjuring vivid images with her finely-drawn songwriting style. That same level of care and detail was taken with the production, which Lizzie worked on herself alongside long-time collaborator Hilts, and Yogic (whose credits include Smino, ENNY, Logic, Niko B and more).

The Night Shift EP continues to win Lizzie new fans on the daily, and is still very much in rotation for the R&B and soul heads. After taking those years to make sure she started correctly, she can’t help but look ahead to the next chapter: her debut album. That’s a little way off, she tells us, but ideas are beginning to come together, and she’s determined to get to work on it sooner rather than later. And we will all be here, ready and waiting.