ProfileKatelynn Dan3 min read
Artist Spotlight: Dijon is the Frank Ocean-sized hole in your playlist, and Baby is where to start
The Los Angeles songwriter behind Baby has worked with Bon Iver, Justin Bieber and Mk.gee. Here is who he is, which songs to press play on first, and who to try next.
Artwork: R&R/Warner Records
If Frank Ocean's Blonde still gets a full play at 2 a.m. on your phone, and you have been waiting for the next record to sit beside it, this is a good week to meet Dijon.
Dijon is the working name of Dijon Duenas, born on 9 June 1992 in Washington state and now based in Los Angeles. He sings, produces, plays guitar and writes for other people, and his records sound like a voice being pulled apart and rebuilt in front of you: a falsetto that cracks on purpose, drums that glitch, a soul song that suddenly turns into noise and then back again.
The comparison people reach for is Frank Ocean, for the voice, and Prince, for the freedom. Treat those as signposts, not a verdict. Dijon is stranger and looser than either.
Start here
His second album, Baby, came out on 15 August 2025 through R&R and Warner Records. It was announced on 8 August 2025, a week before release, and arrived with no singles ahead of it. It runs 12 tracks and 37 minutes and 45 seconds, so it is an easy one to play start to finish.
If you want songs rather than the whole album:
- "Another Baby!" (3:27): track two, on an album that is his first since he became a father.
- "Yamaha" (4:28): the longest of our picks and a good test of whether his sound is for you.
- "Rewind" (2:33): short, and a quick way in if you only have one song's worth of patience.
- "Automatic": the penultimate track, for when you reach the end of the record and want one more.
The production list reads like a map of the indie and R&B world our readers already live in. Andrew Sarlo produced the album, with extra work from BJ Burton, Henry Kwapis, Tommy King, Tobias Jesso Jr. and Mk.gee, Dijon's longtime partner in sound. Mk.gee is credited as a producer on tracks 2, 3, 10 and 12.
The company he keeps
Dijon made his debut album, Absolutely, in 2020 and 2021 with Mk.gee and Sarlo among others, and it came with a companion film. Mk.gee later toured as his guitarist, and Dijon co-produced Mk.gee's 2024 album Two Star & the Dream Police.
In 2025 he also appeared on Bon Iver's Sable, Fable, on the track "Day One", and contributed to Justin Bieber's Swag. Dijon had also opened for Bon Iver on tour. That is a strange trio of rooms to move between, and a decent hint that his ear is wider than the R&B label suggests.
Baby was followed by a North America and Europe tour announced three days after release, which ran from late 2025 into 2026.
Why now
There is a big gap between the pop R&B that fills the charts and the strange, handmade records that people argue about for years. Dijon sits in that gap. If you came to alternative R&B through Frank Ocean, Sampha or the more experimental side of Radiohead, Baby is worth an afternoon. It has now been out for more than a year, long enough to find out whether it lasts.
If you like Dijon, try
- Mk.gee: the guitarist and producer in the middle of Dijon's sound. Start with Two Star & the Dream Police.
- Bon Iver: Dijon is on Sable, Fable, and the voice-as-instrument idea runs through Justin Vernon's whole career.
- Sampha: another singer whose records treat the voice as an instrument and leave room for odd, quiet detail.
Coming from the other direction? Frank Ocean and Radiohead are on ADMC too.
Up next
Artist Spotlight: Raveena is the Sade-soft, Punjabi-rooted R&B voice your Frank Ocean playlist is missing
Raveena has spent a decade making slow, warm R&B with a Punjabi accent, and a new single in September 2026 is her first release of the year. Here is where to start.
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