Samara Joy McLendon^[1] (born November 11, 1999) is an American jazz singer. She released her self-titled debut album in 2021 and was subsequently named Best New Artist by JazzTimes. Her second album, Linger Awhile (2022), reached number one on the Billboard Jazz Albums chart.^[2] At the 2023 Grammy Awards, she won the awards for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best New Artist. Her 2023 single "Tight" won Best Jazz Performance at the following ceremony.

A native of the Castle Hill^[3] neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City,^[4] Joy was born in 1999 into a musical family. Her paternal grandparents, Elder Goldwire and Ruth McLendon, were founders of Philadelphia gospel group The Savettes. Her grandfather, Elder Goldwire McLendon was also a finalist on season 3 of BET's Gospel Talent show Sunday Best. Her father—a vocalist and bass player who has toured with gospel musician Andraé Crouch^[5][6]—introduced her to gospel greats such as The Clark Sisters,^[7] and soul and Motown music.^[8] She attended Fordham High School for the Arts and performed in its jazz band.^[9] During this time, she won Best Vocalist at the Essentially Ellington festival, a high school competition hosted by Jazz at Lincoln Center.^[9][6]

She first encountered jazz in a meaningful way^[10] when she enrolled in the jazz program at SUNY's Purchase College as a voice major,^[11][12] and was named an Ella Fitzgerald Scholar.^[13] Friends there introduced her to the recordings of great jazz vocalists including Sarah Vaughan and Fitzgerald,^[14] and such instrumentalists as Kenny Washington, Jon Faddis (with whom she studied),^[15] and Ingrid Jensen.^[12]

In 2019, as Samara McLendon, she won the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition.^[16][17] Working with producer and eventual manager Matt Pierson, she recorded her self-titled debut album while still in college,^[11] graduating magna cum laude in 2021.^[18][19] Samara Joy was released on July 9, 2021, on Whirlwind Recordings.^[20] Jazz Times named her Best New Artist for 2021.^[21][22] In February 2021, she was featured in Women of Color on Broadway, Inc.'s music video of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess.^[23] In an interview, film director Regina King called her "a young woman who seems like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald are both living in her body."^[24]

She released a number of viral video performances, including one that had been viewed more than 1.5 million times as of October 2020.^[25] These videos had as of November 2022 gained her 200,000 followers on TikTok.^[26] Partly on the strength of this success, she toured Europe,^[20] including a series of sold-out concerts in Italy and Austria.^[7] In 2021 and continuing into 2022, she toured the U.S.,^[27][28] including bookings at the 2022 Monterey Jazz Festival,^[29] Lincoln Center Summer For The City's Jazz Underground series,^[30] Winter Jazzfest,^[31] and other festivals,^[32][33] as well as in Europe.

On February 15, 2022, she performed on Today with guitarist Pasquale Grasso^[34] and performed again on Today in September 2022.^[35] On June 15, 2022, she was featured at Carnegie Hall's 16th Annual Notable Occasion.^[36] and appeared at the Newport Jazz Festival.^[37] She was featured on jazz pianist Julius Rodriguez's 2022 album Let Sound Tell All.^[38]

On September 16, 2022, she released her second album, Linger Awhile, on Verve Records.^[39] The album features drummer Kenny Washington, guitarist Pasquale Grasso, pianist Ben Paterson, and bassist David Wong.^[40][41] Her bookings for Winter 2022 included singing with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on its Big Band Holidays tour.^[42][43]

She was nominated and won two awards at the Grammy Awards in 2023:^[44] Best Jazz Vocal Album for Linger Awhile and Best New Artist.^[45]