Emerging singer-songwriter Nyah Grace is one to watch. With only a few releases to date, she communicates an artistic refinement and polish that smacks of future potential.

Growing up in rural Oregon, Nyah begun her fascination with soul music in her teenage years after discovering Billie Holiday and Alicia Keys. At age 17, she relocated permanently to the UK to pursue music. She released her debut single ‘Black Coffee’ last August, a sophisticated piece with noticeable jazz and folk sensibility.

Her debut album Honey Coloured will be released this coming June, led by double singles ‘Sooner or Later’ and ‘I Just Wish You’d Call Me’. Nyah co-wrote both with the Grammy-nominated songwriter Steve Chrisanthou (Corinne Bailey Rae, Lianne La Havas).

‘I remember listening to the short, very rough demo we made that day about a thousand times,’ she says about ‘Sooner or Later’. ‘I’d never written anything like it before – it’s fast, groovy, retro and modern all at the same time. Hearing it now reminds me of how spontaneous it was.’

With understated, semi-acoustic instrumentation, ‘Sooner or Later’ is a mellow, summery helping of neo-soul. The calming, slightly throwback groove even conceals a romantic urgency to the lyric: ‘I don’t know what the hell you’ve been waiting for / I can see the look in your eyes.’ Nyah’s voice flakes beautifully as she reaches for the high notes. Her vocal sits in the breathy and whispery school – a growing complaint of some ’90s R&B nuts wistful for the range and pyrotechnics of, say, Brian McKnight, Maxwell, or En Vogue.

But it’s all in the tone and phrasing. Nyah exudes a tenderness and a subtlety belying her 18 years of age.