singer's voice brings back memories of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan
Samara Joy McLendon was born in The Bronx, New York in 1999 to a musical family that focused mainly in gospel music.
She attended Fordham High School for the Arts and performed in its jazz band. During this time, she won Best Vocalist at the Essentially Ellington festival, a high school competition hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center.
After graduating, she enrolled at SUNY's Purchase College in their jazz program as a voice major, and was named an Ella Fitzgerald Scholar. Friends at the school introduced her to the recordings of prominent jazz vocalists, including Sarah Vaughan and Fitzgerald.
In 2019, performing as Samara McLendon, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. One of the judges during that competition, was Grammy winning bassist Christian McBride, who described Joy as a "once-in-a-generation talent." Working with producer and eventual manager Matt Pierson, she recorded her self-titled debut album while still in college. She graduated from SUNY Purchase magna cum laude in 2021.
She began using social media releasing a number of viral video performances on Tik-Tok for maximum exposure. One video had been viewed more than 1.5 million times. To date, she has over 700,000 followers on Tik-Tok. Based on her success, she began touring Europe, which included a series of sold-out concerts in Italy and Austria. She toured the U.S., which also included an appearance at the 2022 Monterey Jazz Festival.
That year, she released her second album, ‘Linger Awhile’ on the Verve Record label. The success of the release led to two awards at the Grammys in 2023, Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best New Artist. A year later, she was nominated and won the award for Best Jazz Performance with her single "Tight." She was nominated and won two more awards at the Grammy Awards in 2025, Best Jazz Performance with "Twinkle Twinkle Little Me" and Best Jazz Vocal Album for ‘A Joyful Holiday’. This year she took home her sixth Grammy, this time for Best Jazz Vocal Album for the release, “Portrait”.
This summer, she’ll be performing in France, Norway, Belgium, and England before returning to the states in Chautauqua, New York on August 26.
Website: samarajoy.com
Tik-Tok: samarajoy.lnk.to/TikTokWE
YouTube: samarajoy.lnk.to/YoutubeWE
Instagram: samarajoy.lnk.to/InstagramWE
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