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Naomi Sharon: Live From Paradiso

Eight tracks recorded in a converted church in Amsterdam. Naomi Sharon's voice was built for a room like that, and the recording knows it.

A Rotterdam voice in a room that suits it

Naomi Sharon Webster was born in Rotterdam in 1995 to Aruban and Dutch parents, in a house where her father DJ'd and her mother sang. She trained at the Academy of Theatre and Dance and worked in musical theatre, which explains a great deal about the control in her phrasing — she can hold a note dead still for a very long time and make the stillness feel like an event.

In 2023 she became the first woman signed to Drake's OVO Sound, after the single "Breeze" reached the label. Her debut album Obsidian followed that October to strong reviews, and she has continued with The Only Love We Know and subsequent work. The comparisons to Sade are unavoidable and, for once, roughly accurate: the low register, the restraint, the refusal to oversing.

What to listen for

The Paradiso setting matters. Amsterdam's Paradiso is a former church turned concert hall, with the acoustics and the sightlines that implies, and it has hosted essentially everyone since the late 1960s. Playing it is a milestone for a Dutch artist, and you can hear the occasion in the performances — there is a slight extra weight on the endings of phrases.

"Definition Of Love" is the standout and the one that traveled furthest from these sessions. "Bittersweet" and "Another Life" show what the live band does to material that was quite spare on record — more air, more low end, more space between the lines.

"Calm Waters" and "Celestial" are the ambient-leaning pieces where her voice functions almost as texture. "Feels Like Home" and "The Only Love We Know" are the emotional anchors. The set closes with "Miss That," the one studio cut in the sequence.

Short, deliberate, and best heard in one sitting with the lights low. Live records this restrained are rare, and this one never reaches for applause.

Go deeper

Start with Obsidian (2023), the debut, and then The Only Love We Know (2025). Both are best played whole; her records are built as continuous moods rather than collections of singles.

For obvious neighbours, Sade is the reference everyone reaches for and the one worth revisiting properly — Love Deluxe in particular. Cleo Sol and Nao occupy adjacent British territory. Cassandra Jenkins and Arlo Parks share the ambient-adjacent restraint if not the vocal register.

If the OVO Sound connection interests you, it is worth noting how much of the label's recent output has moved toward this quieter, more atmospheric register — a real shift from the sound it built its reputation on.

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