“I got my ID two months before I blew up, I ain’t even got to use it,” laughs Darkoo, now 19. In fact, this star of Britain’s pioneering Afroswing scene was filling in a UCAS form to study engineering when the video for her signature track,began racking up its 22 million views in autumn 2019. The attention wasn’t just for its addictive summer-in-November sound, but for her appearance, too, which switched between masculine and feminine as she sang about wooing a gender-neutral lover.
“People were like, ‘Is Darkoo a duo?’” she laughs. “I’m fluid. I don’t care.” So effortlessly does Darkoo break the mould, that she didn’t foresee the flood of speculation about her gender and sexuality. “My team are used to me always switching it up,” she explains. “People are definitely confused about it, but it just shows that I’m comfortable in myself, and anyone who wants to be can be comfortable in themselves.
Darkoo, who is Nigerian-born and south London-raised, started out as a drill rapper until, during one studio session, she realised “man can sing, you know!” Her first EP will mix R&B with Afrobeats and her intoxicating, androgynous vocals. It’s just the beginning of her goal to be a “global superstar”. “In five or six years, we are gonna be the Wizkids.”