Even if the name DaniLeigh doesn’t immediately ring any bells, you might recognize her dance moves. The on-the-rise Hip Hop vocalist caught big attention last year when her homemade entry in the “In My Feelings” dance challenge — during which she fluidly danced to the Drake song alongside a moving car after jumping from the driver’s seat — made her the poster girl for the entire craze.
But she’s hardly an overnight/flash-in-the-pan viral star. Signed to Def Jam, DaniLeigh began her career as a young dancer, while also posting YouTube covers of favorite songs by Musiq Soulchild, Drake, Alicia Keys and others in her early teens. Eventually moving to L.A. from her native Florida when she was 16 and getting jobs dancing in music videos and commercials, Prince gave her the opportunity to direct and co-star in his “Breakfast Can Wait” music video when she was 18.
Now in her early 20s, her single “Lil Bebe” became a streaming hit when it was released last fall, and it was followed by her debut album, The Plan, which features guests like YG and Lil Yachty.
Currently on her first headlining tour, DaniLeigh recently talked to Harper’s Bazaar about how she feels performing live.
“What drives me is the energy in the crowd,” she said. “I can see the type of crowd I’m gonna have and I’m like ‘OK, let’s go.’ Something in me just clicks and everything else I was dealing with before, whatever, that day, just doesn’t matter and I just happened to be putting on a great show.”
Following the recent news that "Lil Bebe" has broken the 100 million streams mark, DaniLeigh comes to Cincinnati this Friday (Feb. 22) for a show at Top Cats. Click here for tickets/more show info.
Earlier this week, Vevo released a new live video of "Lil Bebe," as well as a live clip of DaniLeigh's "Do It To Me":
