Artist Spotlight: Mary Ann Alexander is the Indian R&B voice for Brent Faiyaz fans

Mary Ann Alexander first walked into a recording studio at about five years old, holding her father's hand. Alex is a well-known voice in the Malayalam music industry, and she grew up in Thiruvananthapuram with film songs, her grandmother's repertoire and Michael Jackson in the house. Today she is a Bengaluru-based R&B singer and songwriter, and one of the more distinctive voices the Indian scene has produced in the genre.

Here is the line into your taste. She has said she found Brent Faiyaz and Alina Baraz as a teenager, and later Hiatus Kaiyote, and you can hear that lineage: late-night R&B, soft vocals, space around the beat. If Brent Faiyaz and Alina Baraz already live on your phone, this is the Indian act to add next to them.

Start here

"Better Than This" is the easiest way in. Released on 25 February 2026, it opens her debut EP, Love or a Lesson, and was written on her first day in London with the producer Linden Jay. It is about homesickness and early-stage romance, with a pared-back, warm arrangement.

"Student of Love" came out on 19 November 2025 and later landed on the EP. Same ease, a bit more bite in the lyric.

"Take" (5 September 2025) is a self-worth song built on a percussion loop by the Mumbai producer Kambli. It made Spotify's New Music Friday playlists for India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

"Don't Wanna Know" is the newest, out on 4 November 2026, and runs just over two minutes. She wrote it with Linden Jay, Joe Harrison and Ryan James Carr, about wanting answers after a breakup while protecting your own peace.

Why now

Love or a Lesson arrived on 20 March 2026 with six songs: "Better Than This", "Never Alone", "Too Much?", "Student of Love", "Love or a Lesson" and "The Lovey Dovey Song". Since then she has kept releasing on UnitedMasters: "NYC" with Hunna G on 10 July, "Call Me?" on 7 October (produced by Heythisisgg and Bad Entity), and now "Don't Wanna Know".

The international credits are real too. In 2025 she was a featured vocalist on "Commitment (Pt. 4)", a remix with British R&B singer Craig David and Nigerian star Tiwa Savage, and she was among the 20 artists invited to the second edition of Jameson Distilled Sounds in Ireland.

She also sits inside a small, growing Indian R&B circle. She has worked with Sid Sriram and with Tarang Joseph and RANJ, and she has named the Shillong artists Dappest and AdL as voices people are sleeping on.

If you like her, try

• Alina Baraz: the dreamy, low-lit R&B that Mary Ann cites as an early love.
• Raveena: another South Asian voice making soft, spacious R&B for a global audience.
• Hiatus Kaiyote: the Australian band she says she found as a teenager, for when you want the sound looser and stranger.

For more Indian names in the same lane, start with our Seedhe Maut list of Indian rappers and keep an eye on the Artist Spotlight series.