The Old Soul

How Luna Elle honed her mature, Sade-esque sound and nabbed a Juno nom-all before turning 20

-  Luna Elle

LUNA ELLE WASN'T born when the sounds of '90s R&B first filled the airwaves. But during her childhood in Mississauga, Ontario, the era's biggest hitmakers-think Toni Braxton and Brandy-were on loop, thanks to Elle's older sister, Amy. "I loved the riffs and runs and hard-hitting production," Elle says.

Aside from a distant cousin, Garth Hudson, the keyboardist from The Band, Elle was the only musically inclined person in her family, singing highly emotional tunes about her loved ones from the time she was four. She leaned into that hobby hard when she was stuck indoors during the pandemic, recording covers of Tamia's "So Into You" and "Riot" by Summer Walker-the latter of which Amy posted on her Instagram.