Greentea Peng, the unmistakable voice of the British music scene

By Alexis Thibault.

Published on 3 March 2021. Updated on 26 June 2026.

An eccentric look for an extravagant artist

“One thing’s for sure, this girl isn’t getting the recognition she deserves…” The Greentea Peng fan club is very active on social media and full of praise. And rightly so. Everyone felt dazed after watching the music video for Nah It Ain’t The Same (2021) by the London singer. Hidden behind the extravagant look that only British people know how to create, Greentea Peng directs her jaded gaze towards the camera, takes a silver teapot and pours a trickle of steaming water.

No time to understand what she is thinking about, as we plunge into the embers of the joint she slips between her lips. Then, we land on the black and white landscape of a postcard, a bowl of scarlet pomegranates, a deserted street. The climax of this music portfolio is a jazz club, where the young woman transforms her uninhibited soul music into unexpected Jamaican ska sounds. Her mantra hits us where it hurts: “It’s so hard to be human.” 

Aria Wells doesn’t even know how many tattoos cover her body. About fifty? A hundred? At the other end of the line, the young woman sometimes repeats our questions, as if to give herself time to think, punctuating her answers with a serious laugh or a completely rhetorical “You know what I mean?” We learn that she was born and raised in Bermondsey, South London. She quickly opted for a nomadic lifestyle, moving between regions and schools, sometimes leaving the UK capital for Hastings or Mexico City. This wide range of locations, settings and people forged her character.

At the crossroads of music genres

Little by little, the slightly zany teenage party girl cooled down as if the groove she now handles to perfection completed her quest for tranquility. As if the Mayan greetings she embeds in the track Hu Man (2020), satisfied her vital need to explore. In both life and music, Aria Wells runs away from anguish and anger. She behaves like a nightclub face checker with everyone she meets. Between bursts of laughter on the phone, her motto turns into a piece of advice… “Master the energies you bring into your life,” she says.

It is under the stage name Greentea Peng — meaning “delicious green tea” — that she expresses herself best. Her father was an actor and passed down his taste for music to her, from the Fugees to the fabulous musicals in London theatres. But these days, the young woman no longer wanders from town to town. Instead, she travels without leaving England, through music, along the roads leading to R’n’B, ska, reggae, dub, neo soul, jazz and bossa nova. “I don’t think my music is unique, but I refuse to be locked in a box. To escape my comfort zone, I try to be brave… and to improvise,” the singer explains.

Sharp lyrics and experimental sounds

On her debut EP Sensi, released in 2018, she settled for ragamuffin phrasing. In her contemporary soul productions, Greentea Peng tries to avoid the overly obvious harmonies and classical patterns that flood the music industry. Indeed, the 31-year-old artist can safely rely on her own talent, looks and surely the coolest face on the R’n’B scene…. It’s hard to miss this laid-back personality who seems to succeed in everything she does with an insolent ease and nonchalance.

While her vocals evaporate into the pads and synths — those polyphonic and imprecise background ambiences — Greentea Peng still seems blasé. With a thousand rings on her fingers, she reminds us that she masters both her image and her music. For her first album, Man Made (2021), she collaborated with her favourite producer and close collaborator Earbuds once again. The latter had already worked with rapper Slowthai. Greentea Peng has taken risks with a project she describes as “experimental“, like the track Nah It Ain’t The Same where she mixes a double bass riff with old-school minimalist drums.

Although a distinctly summer warmth emanates from most of her compositions, she is also drawn to melancholia in her lyrics. “Of course, it is easier to talk about sadness,” she shares. “The vibrations of grief occur when you’re at the bottom of the hole. It’s terrible for some people but a godsend for artists.” On the track Hu Man, Greentea Peng confides that, behind her garish clothes, she hides so much. And indeed she does remain a charismatic, elusive character, already compared to the great soul divas Amy Winehouse and Erykah Badu. The media love hyperbole like no one else. Greentea Peng, on the other hand, continues her journey in a simpler, freer way.

Tell Dem It’s Sunny (2025) by Greentea Peng, available now.