AMONG THE MANY immediately striking things about Benjamin Clementine is his voice, the powerful tenor that he commands like a classical singer. So it comes as a surprise to discover how soft-spoken he is in conversation—so much so that his voice barely completed the nearly 5,000-mile journey from London, which for Clementine is the closest thing currently resembling home. “At the moment,” he says on the phone from London, “home is a concept.”
For Clementine, home has taken on many different meanings through the years. Born to Ghanaian parents and raised in Edmonton—a lower-class suburb north of London—Clementine left a turbulent family life for Paris in 2009, at age 19, where he slept on the streets or in hostels, supporting himself by busking in the Metro station. After being discovered by a label rep during one of his performances, Clementine signed with Virgin/EMI, who released his first two EPs.
In 2015 he released his debut full-length, At Least for Now, which reached number one in France, was certified Gold, and went on to win the Mercury Prize, the UK’s most prestigious music award. Sir Paul McCartney sang his praises. David Byrne gushed over him in a feature for the New York Times Style magazine. This almost sudden change—from busking for passersby in the Place de Clichy Metro station to performing onstage in front of thousands—could be overwhelming, but Clementine has tried not to let the transition affect his performance.