Haley Smalls

Haley Smalls

Haley Smalls is a Toronto, Canada-based R&B singer-songwriter and self-taught recording engineer. Her work sits between nostalgic R&B, hip-hop influences, subtle synthwave and Caribbean traces, with her sound shaped by classical vocal training and a strong independent approach to her career.

Early life and training

Raised in Toronto by a Bajan father and a European-Canadian mother, she begins singing at an early age. After a neighbour hears her sing and tells her parents, they enrol her in vocal lessons. She is recording in professional studios by the time she is twelve. By eighteen, she teaches herself audio engineering so she can handle her own sound without relying on others.

Career

Smalls builds her career as an independent artist after facing pressure from the music industry to conform. A notable early breakthrough comes in 2014 when Beyoncé shares Haley Smalls’s cover of “Pretty Hurts” on Facebook, drawing wider attention.

Her creative partnership with Grammy-nominated, multi-platinum producer Megaman, known for work with Drake, Lil Wayne, Birdman, Tyga, Bow Wow and Yo Gotti, plays a major role in her artistic development. Together, they shape a style that pairs her classically trained vocals with fluid R&B-led production.

Releases

Her 2019 album Summer Nights marks a breakout point, and the track “Keeper” reaches one million streams across platforms on release and later doubles that total. She then releases The Cure III, Timelines and The Cure IV. The Cure IV is described by Shifter Magazine as showing that she does not need a label to make timeless music.

Her later album Matches contains ten tracks and runs for twenty-nine minutes.

Style and themes

Her discography focuses on love, loss, self-reclamation and personal clarity, and her music reflects an ongoing dialogue with artistic identity and change.