Benjamin Clementine, is an English artist, poet, composer, and musician.
Born and raised in London, Clementine later moved to France and became a homeless teenager in Paris. There, his performances helped him to become a cult figure in the music and art scene. Following his move back to London, he made his TV debut on the BBC programme Later With Jools Holland in 2013. Dubbed as becoming one of the greatest singer-songwriters of his generation,most critics have honoured him citing and describing him as a man of unusual intelligence, great piano style and deep musicality with charisma on stage but nonetheless, found it difficult to place his music in one specific genre, mostly stating that its rather beyond category. However, his vocal range, ability and diction has mostly been compared to that of Leonard Cohen, Nina Simone, and his passionate vocal delivery to Edith Piaf.
Considered by The New York Times as one of the 28 geniuses who defined culture in 2016,Clementine's compositions are musically incisive and attuned to the issues of life but also poetic, mixing revolt with love and melancholy, sophisticated lyricism with slang and shouts, and rhyming verse with prose monologues. He moved from busking to music halls, to symphonic music and spoken word, breaking free from traditional song structure, inventing his own dramatic and innovative musical territory. He is noticeably seen topless and barefoot onstage, dressed entirely in black or dark grey, with a long, wool trench coat.
Despite failing to chart in the UK, his debut album At Least for Now won the 2015 Mercury Prize and fared better across mainland Europe. At the end of 2015, Clementine was included in The Guardian's New Year's honours a list to celebrate heroes of 2015.Debrett's and the London Evening Standard named him one of the most influential people in Britain